Despite a long lap: Ivan Ortola wins Moto2 thriller in Brno!

With midsummer temperatures of 34°C in the air and 52°C on the tarmac, the 27 Moto2 riders were set to take to the track on Sunday afternoon for the ninth race of the current season. David Alonso, Filip Salac and Daniel Holgado made up the front row of the grid at the Brno Grand Prix. Several penalties handed down on Saturday evening caused further shuffling of the grid.

Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez was also affected. The IntactGP rider was demoted from fourth on the grid to 13th for deliberately riding slowly in Q2. This benefited his team-mate Senna Agius, who moved up to fourth on the grid.

At the start of the 18-lap race, pole-setter Alonso held onto the lead and guided the field through the first few corners. Ivan Ortola got off to a very good start from the second row and emerged as the closest challenger at the end of the first lap. Gonzalez managed to fight his way up three places on the opening lap and completed the first lap in tenth place.

Local hero Salac was one of the losers at the start. The Czech hopeful slipped back to sixth position and battled to catch up with the leaders. By the start of the third lap, Alonso and Ortola had already pulled slightly clear. Ortola was signalled that he could now serve his long-lap penalty. However, the Spanish Kalex rider decided to wait a little longer.

On lap 4, Ortola served his long-lap penalty, but lost only just over a second in the process and held on to second place. The penalty gave Alonso a lead of 1.3 seconds. Ortola was riding significantly faster than Alonso at the front and reduced the gap to the leading Aspar bike to less than 0.8 seconds on the fifth lap. With a lap time of 1:58.636, Ortola was just under six tenths of a second faster than Alonso.

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Championship leader Gonzalez had already worked his way into the top six after six laps and was 2.5 seconds behind the leader. Salac also picked up the pace and was posting mid-1:58 lap times. The young Czech rider was in fifth place behind Alonso, Ortola, Izan Guevara and Agius.

After seven laps, Ortola was back within striking distance of Alonso. Behind them, a group comprising Guevara, Agius and Salac had formed, trailing by a good second. Gonzalez lost touch at the halfway stage and was riding alone in sixth position. For Moto2 veteran Aron Canet, the Grand Prix came to an end with a crash at Turn 8. Before his retirement, the Spaniard was running outside the points.

At the front, Ortola followed Alonso’s Kalex like a shadow. Behind them, the battle was fierce. At the Omega, Agius launched an attack on Guevara. Salac was the beneficiary and took third place. Shortly afterwards, Agius lost his right knee slider, leaving him at a clear disadvantage for the remaining eight laps.

Salac picked up the pace and tried to catch Alonso and Ortola. The Czech rider kept his hopes of a victory at his home race in Brno alive. With six laps to go, Salac was just half a second behind Alonso and Ortola.

On lap 13, the top three closed the gap even further. Alonso, Ortola and Salac were separated by just 0.252 seconds. With four laps to go, Ortola launched an attack at Turn 1, but Alonso countered. Ortola made another attempt at Turn 3, but Alonso once again had an answer ready.

Ortola kept the pressure on Alonso. With three races to go, Salac found it increasingly difficult to keep up. On the penultimate lap, the three-way battle finally turned into a two-horse race. Alonso went into the final lap 0.059 seconds ahead of Ortola. Salac had fallen behind.

With a bold manoeuvre in the final corner, Ortola took the lead and crossed the finish line 0.096 seconds ahead. Alonso had to settle for second place after leading the entire race. Third place went to local hero Salac.

Agius picked up solid points in fourth place and finished just 2.058 seconds behind, despite being at a clear disadvantage after losing his knee slider. His IntactGP team-mate Gonzalez was locked in a battle with World Championship rival Guevara in the closing stages. Gonzalez edged out the former Moto3 World Champion by 0.033 seconds.

Aspar rider Daniel Holgado, who had started from the front row, had a disappointing race and finished only seventh. The top 10 was rounded off by last year’s winner Joe Roberts, Celestino Vietti and Jose-Antonio Rueda. Points were also scored by Collin Veijer, Daniel Munoz, Alex Escrig, Taiyo Furusato and Zonta van den Goorbergh.