MotoGP preview: Brno

Venue: Masaryk Circuit, Brno
Circuit: 5.403km; 15 corners, 8 right, 7 left; set in a natural amphitheatre, Brno is a totally different proposition to the last venue at Indianapolis. Like a miniature Spa-Francorchamps, it’s a fast, flowing and undulating track with long straights and high-speed corners. More than most of the current tracks it offers a number of genuine overtaking opportunities.

Lap records:
MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:56.274 (167.284 km/h), 2012, lap 8
Moto2: Andrea Iannone (Suter) 2:02.640 (158.601 km/h), 2011, lap 20
Moto3: Luis Salom (Kalex KTM) 2:09.659 (150.015 km/h), 2012, lap 17

MotoGP: Four on the bounce for MM?
“Brno isn’t one of my favourite tracks,” says Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, but what does that matter? Wherever he races in this fabulous rookie year in the premier class the 20-year-old Spaniard is super-fast, so much so that he has won the last three races running and has a 21-point lead in the world championship. The last rookie to win three premier class grands Prix on the trot was a man by the name of Kenny Roberts way back in 1978. Marquez won the Moto2 race in the Czech Republic last season and was second the year before so he seems to have set his dislike of the place aside in the hunt for points. Second at the moment is his teammate and compatriot Dani Pedrosa, who won the Brno encounter last year and took 250cc and 125cc victories there in 2005 and 2003 respectively.

Q: Who was the last man to win four MotoGP races on the trot, and when?

Unusually, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has just one senior class win at Brno to his name. It came in 2010 and followed two successive victories there for the man who is his teammate once again, Valentino Rossi. The Italian secured his first-ever Grand Prix victory at Brno back in 1996 in the 125cc class – the only one of the riders in the top 15 that day who is still competing at this level. Yamaha believe that while the Brickyard played into Honda’s hands, Brno is much more suited to their bike. It could be even more so if they adopt the seamless gearbox they tested at Brno recently. “I will hope to have it there,” says Lorenzo. “We need some push now, some pieces maybe, some evolution to be more competitive.”

One outfit heading back to Europe on a wave of optimism is Honda Gresini. “Finally we have started to show our hand,” said Fausto Gresini himself after Alvaro Bautista’s most recent strong showing in Indianapolis – a run of four races that goes seventh-fifth-fourth-sixth. “We go to Brno feeling confident that we can do another good job,” says the 28-year-old Spaniard. “We had a few problems last year but we have made notable progress since then so I think that we can be competitive again in the Czech Republic. We are working in a really good way at the moment and everything is coming more easily. Brno is more suited to the Yamaha because of the wide, fast corners and changes in direction and elevation but this year our bike has improved so much and I think we can keep this run of good results going.”

Bautista’s Australian teammate Bryan Staring, racing in the CRT category, had a difficult American race but will go to Brno with one little weight off his shoulders: this is a track he has been to before. “Unfortunately at Indianapolis all the positive things we did in practice came to nothing in the race. I didn't have the same confidence with the bike and it was disappointing,” he explained. “Now we go to Brno, finally a circuit that I already know, and we have an opportunity to put that disappointment behind us. I like the circuit at Brno so hopefully that means we can get started on the bike set-up from the first session.”

In the CRT ranks Colin Edwards will feel buoyed by a points finish in his backyard last time out: he and NGM Mobile Forward Racing partner Claudio Corti came home 13th and 14th. “At the end of the day we got some points and we are getting a little bit closer step by step,” says the Texan veteran. “Next weekend we need to look for that other tiny step.” As usual, however, their FTR Kawasaki machines will have to cope with the consistent race pace of CRT pack leader Aleix Espargaro – his Power Electronics Aspar ART has carried him to 11th overall in the standings with a haul of 56 points so far. The Spaniard concedes that the Brno layout will suit the prototypes better but hopes at least to have shaken off the hand injury he picked up last Saturday.

Moto2: Watch out, there’s a Tito about…
Espargaro’s kid brother Pol, meanwhile, has a 26pt deficit to make up on Moto2 leader Scott Redding – and both of them need to be looking over their shoulders as Tito Rabat’s campaign gathers momentum again. The Tuenti HP 40 rider‘s win at Indianapolis was his second of the season and left him 20pts shy of Redding in third place overall. “It’s pretty demanding,” says Redding of Brno, “a bit like Mugello. You never know what’s going to happen there…"

Aussie fans will again look to Ant West to make something special happen, but QMMF’s Queenslander is frank about his current performance level.

“The team is doing a great job and the bike is working pretty well, but I just need to concentrate more and try to be a bit more focused on my racing,” he said after finishing outside the points in Indianapolis. “I was using the new swingarm all weekend, but it’s difficult to predict how much of an advantage it will give us on other tracks, because Indianapolis is so strange with its different surfaces. We will continue to use the new swingarm at Brno and I hope it is an improvement there, too!”

Moto3: Spanish trifecta looms
As with MotoGP, it’s a Spaniard who tops the standings in Moto3. But Luis Salom is still struggling to recover from the severe sprain to his left foot suffered in Brickyard practice so both Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins will be out to capitalize while they can.

Salom’s Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Arthur Sissis is another man heading for Brno with his confidence high: the Adelaide youngster qualified a career-best sixth and finished in the same position last time out. ”I really like this track,” Sissis says. ”It is one of my favourites on the calendar, so I hope to do well. It is a wide, really fast track that I can’t wait to ride at again. After the good weekend that we had at Indianapolis, I hope to be able to continue in the same way and continue improving day-by-day.”

Compatriot Jack Miller has had surgery in England on the shoulder he damaged in that hard high-side in the American race but has travelled to Brno and hasn’t counted himself out of the weekend just yet.

A: Did you remember? In 2008 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) started a five-race winning streak that began at Laguna Seca, included Brno and continued right through to Japan.