2020 Brno Moto2 Race Result: Tales Of Redemption

The critical track conditions in Brno did not make for the most entertaining battle in Moto2 but the outcome of the 19 laps was a welcome relief for all the men who made the podium. Enea Bastianini demonstrated that he does have consistency in his toolkit by taking control of the race going into turn one at the start and riding a perfect race to secure back to back wins and grab the championship lead. Sam Lowes had an occasional sniff at victory but had to be happy with second, making a long awaited return to the podium. Speaking of long waits, the United States made a comeback to the podium of the intermediate class after 27 years, courtesy of a fine ride from Joe Roberts, who turned pole position into a maiden podium, with third place in Brno.

Despite starting from pole, Roberts did not get to enjoy much time in clear air, as Bastianini made an outstanding launch off the line and headed first into turn one, ahead of Roberts and Lowes, who were getting hounded by Jorge Martin early on. While Roberts, Lowes and Martin were swapping paint to decide who to chase down the leader, Bastianini had stretched a gap of nearly one second in one lap. Meanwhile, Tetusa Nagahsima, the championship leader heading into the race, had joined the top 12, having started 20th.

By lap five, Lowes designated himself to reel in Bastianini and was steadily bringing the gap down, with Roberts starting to struggle to hang onto the British rider. Martin was already over a second back on the podium contenders and had a handful of challengers behind him, including Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini and Augusto Fernandez. A more sizeable group was engaging in battle over two seconds back, led by a convalescent Marcel Schrotter.

At the mid point of the race, Lowes had reduced the gap to Bastianini to half a second but struggled to get any closer, while Roberts was consistently one second behind. Nearly three seconds down the road, Marini took control of the chasing group and fought to draw nearer to podium positions, taking teammate Bezzecchi and Fernandez along for the ride but dropping Martin.

The status quo was maintained for the next few laps, with no significant progress made amongst the top scoring positions, but Lowes was still just close enough to hope for better than second. Those hopes looked dashed in the final four laps, when Bastianini’s advantage grew back to over a second but Lowes applied some more pressure on the final lap – too little too late and the Marc VDS rider had to settle for second. An ecstatic Roberts took the checkered flag five seconds later but safely in the final podium spot and almost three seconds ahead of Marini. Fernandez joined the top five, followed by Bezzecchi and an anonymous Jorge Navarro. Martin, Hafizh Syahrin and Aron Canet rounded out the top ten positions, while Nagashima got stuck in 11th spot after the progress he made early in the race.

Back to back victories bring Bastianini the championship lead, 15 points ahead of Marini and 18 ahead of Nagashima. Lowes climbs a few spots into fourth, 27 points down on the leader.

Results: