Marc Marquez tightens grip on Moto2 title chase

A fourth win in the last five Moto2 races increased Marc Marquez’s commanding world championship lead to 48-points at the Brno circuit today.

The Spaniard brilliantly held off the challenge from Swiss rider Thomas Luthi on the final lap to clinch his sixth win of the season.

In a cagey affair for much of the 20-lap race, Marquez, Luthi, Pol Espargaro and Andrea Iannone seemed reluctant to try and breakaway at the front.

Luthi led from the start until lap 18 when Marquez made his decisive attack. Marquez though wasn’t able to stretch away from fellow Suter rider Luthi and at the chequered flag the victory was only secured by a narrow margin of 0.061s.
Espargaro saw nine more points slip away in what is looking like an increasingly futile pursuit of Marquez.

His hopes of securing a third win of the season were dented in the final stages when he had to let Iannone reclaim third after TV replays showed he had clearly passed the Italian earlier under a yellow flag.

The Spaniard quickly seized back third but he couldn’t force his way back into the fight with Marquez and Luthi and he finished 0.440s off the win.

British rider Bradley Smith starred in a pulsating battle for fifth place involving Simone Corsi, Alex de Angelis, Johann Zarco, Mika Kallio, Esteve Rabat and Julian Simon.

The Tech 3 Racing rider eventually secured eighth place but he was only 0.5s behind Corsi in fifth and just 2.3s split fifth to 12th.

Gino Rea finished in a lowly 24th after he crashed his Gresini Suter machine on lap 12 when he was lying in 20th.

Scott Redding had an early exit after starting from the front row of the grid for third time this season.

The Marc VDS Racing rider crashed out at Turn 3 on the opening lap and the 19-year-old was unable to re-join the 20-lap race after his left handlebar snapped off.