(repeating for additional subscribers)
* Lorenzo beats out rival Pedrosa
* Extends championship lead to 77 points
(Adds details, quotes)
By Jason Hovet
BRNO, Czech Republic, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Spaniard Jorge
Lorenzo won his seventh race of the season at the Czech Grand
Prix on Sunday to extend his Moto GP championship lead to 77
points.
The 23-year-old Yamaha rider started third on the grid but
quickly jumped into the lead on the first lap, where he stayed
for the rest of the race on the 5.4-km Brno circuit.
He finished more than five seconds ahead of compatriot and
championship rival Dani Pedrosa, who began on pole.
Australian Casey Stoner, who is third in the standings,
finished third on a Ducati, beating out Ben Spies into fourth in
the American's first front row start.
Italian world champion Valentino Rossi finished fifth, where
he started the race.
Lorenzo became only the third rider in 62 years of GP to
finish in the top two in the first 10 races of a season.
"I had a good start. After the second, third corner I was in
first and decided to push the maximum," Lorenzo said.
"It was a difficult race because of the wind."
Riders -- and the 148,000 fans who watched Sunday's race --
were battling wet weather and storms throughout the weekend,
slowing the lap pace.
Lorenzo set the fastest lap midway through the race, when he
started pulling away, at one minute 57.524 seconds, more than a
second slower than Pedrosa's best qualifying lap on Saturday.
Loris Capirossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Mika Kallio all
crashed out of the race.
Lorenzo, who was runner up to team mate Rossi in the
standings last year, has won five of the last six races. Pedrosa
edged him four weeks ago in Germany for the Honda rider's second
victory of the season.
Pedrosa said the conditions for Sunday's race were not
ideal.
"By the middle of the race I just couldn't improve," he
said. "I was spinning a lot and couldn't get the drive out of
the corners."
Last year's Czech winner Rossi is set to announce who he
will race for in 2011 later on Sunday. []
The 31-year-old, holder of nine world titles across all
classes, is in the last year of his contract with Yamaha, and
Ducati have said they want to sign him.
His move to Ducati has been widely expected in motorsport
circles after he distanced himself from an immediate future in
Formula One or rallying.
(Editing by Justin Palmer; To query or comment on this story
email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
(prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
jason.hovet.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420-224 190 476))
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