Brno Moto2: Bastianini wins ahead of Lowes

The Italtrans rider nailed his launch from third on the grid to grab the holeshot on the run into Turn 1 at the start of the fourth round of the 2020 Moto2 campaign.

Poleman Joe Roberts folded into second ahead of the Marc VDS bike of Sam Lowes, though both would briefly fall behind the Ajo Kalex of Jorge Martin.

This allowed Bastianini to open up a lead of close to eight tenths, with Roberts regaining second from Martin at the Schwantz corner of Turn 10.

But the American Racing rider soon came under attack from Lowes at the start of the second lap, with the latter moving into second at Turn 3.

Lowes began the hunt on Bastianini, who now held a gap of a second over the chasing pack.

The Marc VDS rider got the gap down to eight tenths come the third lap, with the Briton closing to within half a second by lap seven.

Bastianini, however, began to wind up his pace again and get the gap back out to a second by the closing stages.

Though Lowes put on a bit of a charge on the last lap and cut Bastianini’s lead down to half a second, the Italian came under no threat on the run to the line to move 18 points clear in the standings.

Lowes’ second marks his first podium since he won the 2016 Aragon GP.

Roberts was cut adrift of the leading duo early on in the 19-lap race, but kept his pace strong enough as the only one of the leading group on the softer front tyre to avoid coming under threat from the chasing Luca Marini in fourth.

Taking the chequered flag in third for his maiden podium, Roberts becomes the first American in any grand prix class to stand on the rostrum since Ben Spies was second in MotoGP in 2011.

It was also the first for an American rider in the intermediate class since John Kocinski at Assen in 1993.

Marini was a damage-limiting fourth on the Sky VR46 Kalex, with Augusto Fernandez completing the top five for Marc VDS ahead of the sister VR46 bike of Marco Bezzecchi.

Jorge Navarro was a distant seventh on the Speed Up, beating Martin – who tumbled down the order after his early podium run – Aspar’s Hafizh Syahrin and his teammate Aron Canet.

Brno Moto2 - Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	33	Enea Bastianini	Kalex
2	22	Sam Lowes	Kalex	0.423
3	16	Joe Roberts	Kalex	5.948
4	10	Luca Marini	Kalex	8.797
5	37	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	9.392
6	72	Marco Bezzecchi	Kalex	10.306
7	9	Jorge Navarro	Speed Up	10.575
8	88	Jorge Martin	Kalex	11.366
9	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Speed Up	12.875
10	44	Arón Canet	Speed Up	14.266
11	45	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	15.378
12	97	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	19.031
13	87	Remy Gardner	Kalex	19.282
14	11	Nicolo Bulega	Kalex	19.598
15	23	Marcel Schrotter	Kalex	19.638
16	21	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Speed Up	22.245
17	12	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	24.406
18	64	Bo Bendsneyder	NTS	25.065
19	42	Marcos Ramirez	Kalex	25.170
20	57	Edgar Pons	Kalex	26.727
21	77	Dominique Aegerter	NTS	27.004
22	7	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	29.986
23	35	Somkiat Chantra	Kalex	36.034
24	19	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Kalex	36.411
25	27	Andi Gilang	Kalex	45.780
	62	Stefano Manzi	MV	8 Laps
	96	Jake Dixon	Kalex	9 Laps
	40	Hector Garzo	Kalex	14 Laps
	99	Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin	Kalex	16 Laps
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