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Photos from Czech Republic MotoGP

Rossi on the podium yet again, but Lorenzo takes over the points lead

August 17, 2015

This past weekend at the historic Brno circuit in the Czech Republic, Jorge Lorenzo was able to do in Sunday’s MotoGP race what he wasn’t able to one week ago at Indy—break away from Marc Marquez and wholly close the points gap between he and Rossi. Was the race exciting? Not exactly. Was it a turning point in the championship? It certainly could be. In fact, if Lorenzo goes on to win the title, we may look back at Brno as the pivotal race in the 2015 MotoGP World Championship. This could be the race that takes some of the wind out of Rossi’s sails.

Scroll down for more photos from the weekend and notes on who finished where.

Jorge Lorenzo led practice on Friday, smashed the outright lap record at Brno during qualifying on Saturday (and became the only rider to lap in the 1:54s), and won Sunday's race by 4.462 seconds. When he's on, he's on.

The win (combined with Rossi's third-place finish) was enough to tie the championship standings up at 211 points, which the Spaniard seemed pretty thriilled about.

Hmm....can you tell by the body language who won the race, and who finished second and third?

Marc Marquez was able to match Lorenzo's pace in the early stages of the race. By lap six, both he and Lorenzo had opened up a four-second gap over Rossi.

For Marquez, unfortunately, the gap between he and Lorenzo would then start to grow, with Lorenzo going on to open up a two-second gap by lap 12.

Although Rossi and Lorenzo now both have 211 points, Lorenzo is technically leading the championship since he's won five races compared to Rossi’s three. Still, Rossi has been on the podium in every race this season.

Dani Pedrosa had a fork fail in practice and consequently hit the deck, injuring his left foot. He'd go on to finish fifth in the race.

MotoGP rookie Maverick Viñales qualified seventh, but crashed out of the race trying to make up for the Suzuki's lack of top-end horsepower. The lap splits show the GSX-RR has the handling dialed, it just needs more speed.

Ducati's Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso battled it out with Dani Pedrosa over the last couple of laps, but ultimately it was Iannone who would finish top Ducati, just ahead of Pedrosa in fourth place.