Miguel Oliveira moved into the Moto2 championship lead for the first time this season after winning a thrilling four-way battle at Brno. The Portuguese rider denied Luca Marini his maiden victory after going side-by-side throughout the final lap while Francesco Bagnaia lost the points lead despite finishing a close third.
Marini was looking to emulate the achievement of his half-brother Valentino Rossi who claimed his first-ever victory at this circuit over two decades earlier and the Sky VR46 rider regularly showed his aggression at the front, battling with team-mate Bagnaia, Oliveira and the Pons Kalex of Lorenzo Baldassarri. The group had earlier contained Alex Marquez but the rider lying third in the championship suffered another costly crash at the final corner shortly before half distance.
Oliveira had led onto the final lap but a rare error from the KTM rider saw Marini sneak through at turn one. The polesitter led all the way until the penultimate ‘S’ bends, fending off one attack at turn ten before being muscled aside into turn 11. Marini had one final lunge into the final chicane but Oliveira would brave it out, hanging on to win but just seven hundredths of a second.
Bagnaia got the better of Baldassarri on the last lap to finish third while Xavi Vierge won the battle of the second group to take fifth, narrowly beating Sachsenring winner Brad Binder and Marcel Schrotter. Jorge Navarro was eighth ahead of Sam Lowes with Mattia Pasini fading to tenth having led early in proceedings.
Moto2 Monster Energy Grand Prix Ceske Republiky (Result)
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