Francesco Bagnaia took his first MotoGP win of the season by claiming a hard-fought sprint race victory at Brno on Saturday.
The factory Ducati rider got the jump on polesitter Ai Ogura at the start, then spent the rest of the race managing pressure from the Trackhouse man and, close behind him, Marc Marquez.
Marco Bezzecchi came away from another sprint with no points after his fourth Saturday crash of the season, but the Aprilia rider retains the championship lead.
It was a cagey sprint, unusual for the fact that there were different tyre strategies at the front. Notably, the factory Ducatis of Bagnaia and Marquez opted for the soft rear, as opposed to the medium Ogura and most of the other top runners selected.
With baking hot temperatures at Brno, tyre wear for the Ducatis made for an intriguing sub-plot as well as a management challenge for the two red bikes.
In the end, however, the front trio held station to the flag despite ebbs, flows and the ever-present feeling that somebody might make a move or a mistake.
Most of the action in the race came in the form of crashes – there were six of them – rather than overtaking moves. This included Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) sliding out of third place at the end of the first lap.
Diogo Moreira, Team LCR Honda
By lap two, Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) had established himself in fourth place ahead of Bezzecchi, Pedro Acosta (KTM), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Jorge Martin (Aprilia).
Di Giannantonio had an uneventful ride to fourth at the finish, but Bezzecchi was unable to bring it home behind him, crashing out of fifth on the penultimate lap.
There to pick up the spot was Martin, who was thus able to close the championship gap on his colleague to 15 points. Martin had passed Fernandez early, then battled with Acosta before the KTM man fell on lap six.
This meant Fernandez could claim sixth after having wondered out loud whether he could finish the sprint at all following his appendicitis earlier in the week.
Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM), Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) and 2020 Czech GP winner Brad Binder took the last three points-paying positions.
MotoGP Czech Grand Prix – Sprint results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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