Johann Zarco took another giant step towards the 2015 Moto2 title with victory at the Czech Republic Grand Prix. Despite his lead rarely growing beyond a second over Tito Rabat, the Frenchman always looked in control and has now extended his championship advantage to 79 points over the Spaniard.
The only stage where Zarco didn’t have clear tarmac ahead of him was the opening lap when a blistering start from the second row took Thomas Luthi into the lead. The Swiss rider didn’t put up the strongest resistance with Johann taking over the lead on lap two but Rabat found life much tougher when he attempted to wrestle second away from him. A magnificent move around the outside of turn eleven did the trick for the defending champion but Tito had handed Zarco a one-second advantage, something he wouldn’t get back.
As Luthi fell backwards, the fight for third initially brought back memories of recent Moto3 tussles with Alex Rins locking horns with former teammate and adversary Alex Marquez. The latter had already scored a season-best qualifying result and kept pace with his fellow rookie for much of the race, only slipping back in the final couple of laps as Rins gave chase of Rabat. In the end, Tito held onto to second by 0.364s with Marquez finishing a fine fourth on the second Marc VDS Kalex.
Sam Lowes bounced back from a disastrous qualifying session to take fifth, keeping a fast-closing Jonas Folger at bay, while Luthi tumbled all the way down to seventh, ten seconds off the lead. Sandro Cortese’s impressive qualifying form didn’t continue into race day, leaving him eighth, while Luis Salom and Franco Morbidelli rounded out the top ten.
MOTO2 bwin GRAND PRIX ČESKÉ REPUBLIKY – RACE RESULT (20 LAPS)
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