Rossi is a winner of Czech Grand Prix

Valentino Rossi led an Italian sweep Sunday in the MotoGP race at the Czech Grand Prix, winning ahead of Loris Capirossi and Max Biaggi.

Rossi, riding a Yamaha, finished the race in 43 minutes, 56.539 seconds to clinch his ninth victory of the season. Capirossi finished second in 43:58.376, followed by Biaggi in 43:59.983. Rossi leads the overall standings with 261 points, 132 points ahead of Biaggi. Marco Melandri is third with 126 points.

Sete Gibernau of Spain, who started from the pole position on Sunday and competed with Rossi for the lead throughout the race, dropped out on the last lap. It was not immediately clear what made him to pull out. Earlier, Spain's Daniel Pedrosa won the 250cc race ahead of Jorge Lorenzo of Spain and Australia's Casey Stoner. Thomas Luthi of Switzerland dominated the 125cc race, edging Mika Kallio of Finland and Italy's Marco Simoncelli, AP reports.