Joan Mir extended his Moto3 championship lead to 42 points with another narrow victory over Romano Fenati at Brno. The Spaniard triumphed in wet conditions in the Czech Republic to claim his sixth win of the season and the latest to come at the expense of Fenati who finished second for the fourth race in succession.
All eyes at the start were on the two RBA KTMs after they had claimed unlikely front row starts and although Gabriel Rodrigo had the honour of starting from pole, it was his team-mate Juanfran Guevara who led a four-rider breakaway, joined by Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Bo Bendsneyder, as well as the two championship protagonists.
The natural order didn’t start to establish itself until the final six laps with Fenati finally hitting the front for the first time, outbraking Bendsneyder into turn three. Mir would soon make his move though, scything through into the lead two laps later and while the title rivals would go on to trade fastest laps in the latter stages, Mir would retain a slight advantage at the chequered flag.
It looked as though Bendsneyder and Guevara would have the third-place battle to themselves but they hadn’t bargained for a hard-charging Aron Canet who produced a blistering series of laps to reel the KTM pair in, despite lying as low as twelfth at half distance. The Estrella Galicia rider timed his chase to perfection, powering past Bendsneyder for third on the final lap with Guevara demoted to fifth in the end.
John McPhee couldn’t quite hit the heights of last year, finishing sixth ahead of Marcos Ramirez while Tatsuki Suzuki and Adam Norrodin finished strongly to take eighth and ninth respectively. Thai rookie Nakarin Atiratphuvapat rounded out the top ten, just reward for the youngster who ran in the podium positions in the early going.
Moto3 Monster Energy Grand Prix Ceske Republiky: Result
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