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World Championship Road Race Series Round 10: Czech Republic Grand Prix corner and chasing him to within a bikelength, Rossi pumping his fist in victory, his winless drought over. "I make a small mistake with two laps to go because push very hard to get a little gap from Sete [Gibernau] but make a mistake, I run wide, and Sete overtake, and also he's able to go half a second in front," Rossi said. "So I say, difficult also this time. But push, push very hard, and also Sete last lap make a small mistake so it's possible I come back, and I attack him in turn 10, the right after the downhill, and it was like comeback to '96, I overtake [Jorge] Martinez in the same place for the first [125cc] victory, and it was the same emotion that time." Of the end of the race, Gibernau said: "He did a great job on the last couple of corners, and I really tried to pass him in the last corner, but I almost touched him. It was very close. He deserved to win; he did an awesome race, a great race. Small mistakes like this decided the race. The limit was always there for 22 laps, and it's strange that we did not make more mistakes." For Checa, fourth was like a victory. "I was able to overtake [Max] Biaggi but only to follow the others," Checa said. '" made a small mistake at one point, when I went in too hard on the brakes and lost a bit of time. I tried to catch the others, but it was impossible. It's the first race where I have been able to follow the leading group and ride consistently fast all race." Further down the field Edwards spent the race with Olivier Jacque, Makoto Tamada and Marco Melandri, his fortunes ebbing as his fuel load decreased. The problems began when the fuel load went down, and Edwards slipped out of 10th on the 11 th lap, losing a spot to Tamada and another to Jacque. 'Twenty-two liters or whatever, it's good, but under 10 liters there's not enough weight," Edwards said. "That Before the 15th lap ended, Bayliss had drafted by to take the lead once again, Gibernau second, Rossi third after passing Capirossi entering the first corner to start the 16th lap. Down the straight they went four wide, Rossi slipping through and taking a tight line in the left-right to secure the lead from Gibernau, with Bayliss and Capirossi right there. Next was Checa with half a second on Biaggi, and Hayden over a second back and losing ground. He settled in to seventh, his qualifying position, until Alex Barros made a charge in the·final two laps, and Hayden had to race to the finish. "All weekend I've been hard on front tires, and I knew today that it was going to be a problem, and the last five, six laps I started pushing the front quite a lot," Hayden said. "I'm the kind of guy who, the rear moving around and stuff, I don't mind so much. Here, especially the downhill corners, I don't have the feel for pushing the front around. He came fast. I knew it had to be [Alex] Barros. He's really strong at the end." Early on lap 18 Capirossi passed his teammate Bayliss and took over third but would drop out soon with a mechanical problem. "I passed Troy [Bayliss]. and then I was waiting to unleash my challenge in the last lap or two - anything was possible in those final laps," Capirossi said. "Then the bike suddenly stopped." On the penultimate lap, Gibernau took the lead in the middle of the double right, sweeping under Rossi as they hit the second apex. Rossi counterattacked within a few corners but ran well wide in a downhill right, giving Gibernau a hint of breathing room as they started the final lap. The gap was .411 of a second. Rossi went under in a long sweeping right followed by a tight left, Gibernau on his tail. Up the hill they went, two corners to the finish, Rossi wide right the next sweeping left, Gibernau on the outside in the final 18 AUGUST 27,2003' a U a I e n e vv s Rossi's post..race celebration included meeting up with some dressed up inmates to do a little work on the chain ang. being said, it should be a pretty easy problem to figure out, just work with spring rates and different dampening and maybe different oil levels. This is the third race in a row I've confirmed it like that - good at the beginning and bad at the end." At the tail end of the field, Hopkins and Roberts Jr. were fighting with the Kawasakis. Hopkins overtook Roberts on lap seven, well after Roberts realized his engine wasn't up to the task. '" don't know the technical reason, but it just felt inconsistent, and it was very difficult to ride," Roberts said. "Towards the end it seemed to fix itself, and I was able to pick up my pace a bit, but then in the last laps the problem came back." The target for Hopkins was Andrew Pitt, the Australian whom he'd caught three laps from the end and two laps after his front end developed a serious push. "This track really wants to wear the right-hand side of the tire out," Hopkins said. "Going into all the right-handers, the front was definitely on edge. The last lap' just said, 'Screw it - , either go by him or crash.' I got to get by Andrew, and I wanted to beat Andrew. Every time I tried to drive on him, the rear was spinning and spinning. Luckily I didn't crash, but' didn't make it into the points." 250cc GRAND PRIX Toni Elias led the first lap of the 250cc race, then Randy de Puniet took over, Manuel Poggiali going with him. By the eighth lap it was a three rider race, de Puniet in front, with Poggiali in second and Elias in third, the same order they'd finished the second lap. Only now, they'd left Roberto Rolfo behind. Rolfo didn't get the best of starts and had to catch up. Once with the pack, he made another mistake and fell back again. "When I tried again to close the gap under braking, , did not have the acceleration I needed off the corner," Rolfo said after finishing fourth, 5.492 seconds back of the winner. Poggiali took the lead on the ninth lap, Elias in front on 10 and 11 before Poggiali was back in front on the 12th. Second and third changed hands on the 13th with the order static for four laps before the final fourlap crunch. On the 18th de Puniet took over second, then first on the 19th. The last lap was a classic, four lead changes that began with Elias