Gresini’s Sam Lowes finished on the podium in a very wet Moto2 race in Brno, and the British rider crossed the line in a solid third, to bag himself his first rostrum finish since Mugello. The eventual race winner was Dynavolt’s Jonas Folger, with title challenger Alex Rins in second.
Moto2 championship leader, Johann Zarco did not have the best of experiences out in the rain and finished outside the top ten. But Rins’ second place finish means he now closes the gap on Zarco at the top of the standings by nineteen points, with the Frenchman ending the race in eleventh. Lowes remains third in the championship heading into his home round of Silverstone next month.
At first it was Zarco who nabbed the hole-shot, but that was only to last half a lap as the series leader went wide allowing Jonas Folger to slot into the front with Rins hot on his tail.
It was not the best of starts for Sam Lowes, who began on the front row but was locked in a battle for fourth, with Nakagami but with seventeen laps remaining he overtook the Japanese rider to go up into third, as the rain started to fall heavily out on the Czech track.
With twelve laps left Lowes set the fastest lap of the race so far and edged ever closer to the leading duo of Folger and Rins. Meanwhile Zarco was just outside the points in sixteenth, and the rain did subside somewhat in the latter laps of the race, and at the chequered flag the back-flipping Frenchman clawed back four places.
Reigning Moto3 champ, Danny Kent was up the sharp end during the earlier warm up session, but found himself in the mid pack throughout the race after starting on the fifth row of the grid. But he did fight through the field to cross the line in a very respectable seventh, with Pasini, Marquez, Syahrin, Morbidelli, Oliveira and West completing the top ten.
There were a few riders who did fall out on the wet track, which included Nakagami, who was caught up in an incident with Cors. Race direction did investigate the incident, leading to Corsi receiving a ride through penalty during the race.
