ROAD RACE
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 11 / AUGUST 21, 2016
AUTOMOTODROM BRNO / CZECH REPUBLIC
P74
Moto2
FOLGER FLIES FREE
It was an austere and difficult
race for the middle class, with a
minimum of overtaking and the
top three settled after just four
laps. The interest came from the
twist in the championship, with
pole starter Johann Zarco (Ajo
Kalex) quite out of sorts in the
wet, finishing 11th, and his main
rival Alex Rins (Paginas Amaril-
las Kalex) claiming 20 points to
close the gap to just 19.
And a frisson also from Aus-
tralian wild card Anthony West,
riding a four-year-old Suter, the
only one on the grid, qualifying
last, and then using his legend-
ary wet-weather skill to push
through from 29th to 10th, one
place up on Zarco.
Victory went to another good
man in the wet, Jonas Folger
(Dynavolt Kalex).
Zarco led into the first corner,
but by the exit Folger had ridden
past around the outside, and
would never be headed. Rins
put the pressure on for the early
laps, but by the 10th the gap was
more than one second, and his
challenge spent.
Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu
Honda) had been third, but Sam
Lowes (Federal Oils Kalex) was
on the charge, passing first
Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Kalex)
and then pushing past the Japa-
nese rider into third on lap four.
He held that to the finish, in a
staunch if lonely ride.
Nakagami would continue to
lose ground and was ninth when a
collision with the ever-eager Sim-
one Corsi (Speed Up) knocked
him out of the race. Corsi, a serial
offender, was sanctioned with a
