Motorcycling: Stoner leaves Rossi in his wake with seventh victory

Casey Stoner might have been riding a scooter to the shops rather than his 210mph Marlboro Ducati for all the energy he had to expend in winning his seventh MotoGP race of the season at Brno in the Czech Republic yesterday.

The 21-year-old Australian won by 7.9 seconds – the equivalent of a light year in MotoGP racing – from John Hopkins, on the ever-improving Rizla Suzuki, with the outgoing world champion Nicky Hayden, on the factory Repsol Honda, completing the podium.

Only a disaster in the remaining six races can now prevent Stoner from taking his and Ducati's first ever world championship in motorcycle racing's senior category. He now leads Valentino Rossi by 60 points and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa by 78.

"At the start John was putting a lot of pressure on me, and I really had to focus," Stoner said. "Towards the end I started to improve my rhythm, but then I made a couple of small mistakes and I snapped back into gear."

Hopkins enjoyed his best finish in five seasons of MotoGP competition, but admitted that he had been unable to push Stoner in the final stages of the race. "He was incredible, he was on fire," the Californian said.

"I tried and tried, but with 10 laps to go I had to put up with finishing second."

Rossi,who will now suffer a second season without winning the title that once became almost his inheritance, had to fight to wrestle seventh place on his Fiat Yamaha from Frenchman Randy de Puniet, who was only half a second behind on his Kawasaki.

The 28-year-old Italian banned his usually effervescent contact with the media during the weekend, feeling battered by accusations of tax evasion by the Italian authorities. He is also fighting against a 5mph handicap on the straights compared to the Ducatis, while his Michelin tyres have this year been no match for Stoner's Bridgestones.

From pole position, Stoner led into the first corner on the 3.6-mile circuit, from Pedrosa and Hopkins, with Hayden in fourth place. From his second-row position, Rossi slotted into sixth place behind Loris Capirossi's Ducati.

The fans were probably hoping that the resurgent Repsol Hondas, gradually finding pace with a newly designed V4 engine for this season, might have been able to take the battle to Stoner, but although Hayden pulled into third place, he gradually fell further back.

"When I got into third I thought, 'All right dad, it's looking pretty'," Hayden said. "But then I got to the straight and realised that I was just dreaming."

Pedrosa finished fourth from the Australian Chris Vermeulen, who made it two Suzukis in the top five, with Capirossi in sixth place and Rossi a yawning 22.485 seconds behind Stoner at the finish.