Calia and Gagne win in Brno Rookies round

In race one at Brno Kevin Calia rode perfectly to take his first Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup victory, the 15 year-old Italian leading from the second lap to the finish line on Saturday. That left 16 year-olds Daijiro Hiura and Danny Kent to battle for the last two podium spots with the Japanese rider just getting the better of the Brit on the final corner.

Calia, who started from third on the grid and managed to win by a gap of just over 1.5s – a large margin in the usually tight Rookies races – said: “I believed that I could win the race, but not like this, not going away and saying goodbye to the others. I just kept pushing as hard as I could and they did not catch me.”

Calia took the lead when pole man Alejandro Pardo high sided on lap two, and a contest for the remaining two podium spots involved up to ten riders with Hiura and Kent coming through. Another talented young Brit Harry Stafford took fourth having come close to a rostrum place, whilst Spaniard Daniel Ruiz secured fifth. Alessio Cappella recovered from a moment with two laps to go to manage sixth position.

On Sunday in race two Jake Gagne was victorious as he bounced back from eighth the previous day. The 16 year-old American extended his Cup lead to 11 points over Kent with just the single Misano race now remaining, and Kent is the only rider now able to challenge him for the title.

Gagne won race two going into the final ‘S’ bends and beat Kent to first place, with Stafford taking third. Race one winner Calia was involved in the battle for the lead but crashed on lap five and eventually finished 16th. Hiura was unlucky to be taken out when Cappella crashed on the same lap.

Gagne, who won from 16th place on the grid, said: “There was more wind than yesterday and that was moving us around a bit but it was more to do with all the guys passing and re-passing. I tried to break away but it wasn't possible so I just had to try and position myself on the last lap, I got into second for the slipstream up the hill and passed Danny into the last corner.”

The 2010 Cup will be decided in the final race at Misano on September 4th.