Lorenzo wins Czech race to share championship lead

Jorge Lorenzo hoisted himself into joint top place in the MotoGP world championship with a commanding performance at Brno on Sunday (16 August).

The Spanish double world champion had broken the lap record in winning pole position on Saturday at the Automotodrom Brno and continued his domination from the start, never losing the lead as he powered away from defending world champion Marc Marquez.

Lorenzo’s Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi briefly lost third place to Andrea Dovizioso but soon climbed past his Italian compatriot and held on to the chequered flag.

Lorenzo and Rossi are now level on 211 points in the table with Marquez third on 159 and Lorenzo said afterwards: “Luckily I had a little more pace than Marc and I could win this very important victory because now I lead the championship with Valentino and for Marc it’s now more difficult to recover.”

In Moto2, French rider Johann Zarco extended his championship lead, beating his nearest challengers, Tito Rabat and Alex Rins, into second and third places respectively.

Zarco tops the table with 224 points, Rabat has 145 and Rins 144.

The Moto3 race had to be halted soon after the start when Gabriel Rodrigo, Hiroki Ono, Andrea Locatelli and Lorenzo Dalla Porta careered off the track and none of them made the restart once the debris was cleared.

Italy’s Niccolo Antonelli went on to claim his first Moto3 victory from compatriot Enea Bastianini and South African Brad Binder.

Championship leader Danny Kent could only finish seventh and now heads the table with 199 points with Bastianini second on 154, a long way ahead of third placed Romano Fenati, also of Italy with 122.