Moto2: Back-to-Back Bastianini Takes Championship Lead in Brno

In Brno, the Moto2 race was quite straightforward. Compared to the junior and premier classes, Moto2 was once again the calming influence on the Grand Prix paddock, but there were still some fascinating stories in the Czech Republic.

Enea Bastianini picked up in Brno where he left off in Jerez, by taking the lead early on. The Italian was dominant in his Andalusian Grand Prix win two weeks before Moto2 arrived in Brno, and it was much of the same at round four of the 2020 season.

As in Jerez, Bastianini led every single lap in Brno, including the final lap, to take his second consecutive victory. Not only was this the first time in his six-year-old Grand Prix career that Bastianini had won back-to-back races, but it was also the first time he had won more than one Grand Prix in a single season. With some of the other championship contenders having more complicated afternoons, Bastianini was also able to claim the championship lead in Brno, and he will carry a 15-point lead over Luca Marini into the first Austrian race next weekend.

Having teased a first podium finish in almost four years at both rounds in Jerez, Sam Lowes was finally able to climb the rostrum in Brno. It was perhaps one of Lowes’ most impressive races in Grands Prix. He had Bastianini at an almost constant distance – between 0.5 and one second – in front of him for the whole race, as well as some light pressure from behind, but despite that the Briton made no major mistakes. Lowes was able to keep up the pressure on Bastianini for the race’s duration and, although he was unable to force a mistake from the #33, was able to take what turned out to be a fairly comfortable second place.

Third place went to Joe Roberts, the American rediscovering the speed from Qatar that seemed to go missing in Jerez. Back in Qatar, Roberts was disappointed to miss out on the rostrum having started from pole, but the #16 was this time able to deliver on the Sunday as well as the Saturday. He didn’t quite have the pace of Bastianini and Lowes ahead of him, however he was able to be faster than those behind him, meaning it was a relatively stress-free ride to a debut podium for Roberts. Now, like Lowes, he will be aiming to climb a step or two higher in Austria.

Having made the podium in both races in Jerez, Luca Marini paid the price for a poor qualifying performance in Brno. The Italian was not able to cut through the pack from 10th place on the grid fast enough, and by the time he reached fourth place the gap to Roberts in third was too much to be overcome. But, in any case, it looked to be quite a safe ride from Marini, who already identified on Saturday that qualifying would be his focus in Austria, since his race pace seems to be consistently competitive from track-to-track.

There was a welcome surprise in fifth place, as Augusto Fernandez completed the top five for what was by far his best performance of 2020. The Spaniard had, until Brno, struggled to understand the 2020 Dunlop front tyre, but clearly he had been able to do some good work with his team between Jerez and Brno, and also in the Brno weekend itself, to arrive in fifth place at the end. The result catapulted the #37 up to 13th in the championship, although with a 56-point deficit to Bastianini it is hard to see Fernandez entering the championship battle.

Marco Bezzecchi was unable to repeat the performance of the Andalusian Grand Prix that saw him take his first Moto2 podium but the Italian was anyway able to complete the top six in Brno. The #72 was followed over the line by Jorge Navarro, who was the top Speed Up and top non-Kalex, Jorge Martin, Hafzh Syahrin and Aron Canet who completed the top 10.

Tetsuta Nagashima’s 11th place was not enough for the Japanese rider to maintain the championship lead he gained back at the first round in Qatar. Things are not over for the Japanese rider in the championship, though, as he is still only 18 points behind Bastianini.

Behind Nagashima was Xavi Vierge, who won a four-way battle for 12th; the three behind Vierge were Remy Gardner, Nicolo Bulega and Marcel Schrotter and the four of them were covered by 0.607 seconds at the line.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was the first rider to miss out on points, finishing 16th ahead of Tom Luthi, Bo Bendsneyder, Marcos Ramirez and Edgar Pons who completed the top 20.

Dominique Aegerter, who was riding in Brno in place of Jesko Raffin who was ill, was 21st on his NTS debut, ahead of a bizarrely disappointing Lorenzo Baldassarri in 22nd, Somkiat Chantra in 23rd, Lorenzo Dalla Porta in 24th and Andi Izdihar who was the final classified rider in 25th.

There were four retirements: Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin, Hector Garzo, Jake Dixon and Stefano Manzi.