Marquez wins as weather causes strategy mess

Marc Marquez has won the Czech Grand Prix after he was effectively forced to be the first onto slick tyres on a drying Automotodrom Brno.

The championship leader led by 17 seconds after everyone swapped from wets to slicks, with Dani Pedrosa soon moving up to second and staying there for a Repsol Honda one-two, while Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha) finished third.

Earlier showers saw the race was declared wet, but with no rain falling on the grid a dry line had already formed by the time the field started the warm-up lap, all on wet tyres.

While Marquez led the field away, the conditions played against him as he was the only rider to start on a soft compound rear tyre.

Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) took over the lead on Lap 1 and Marquez began dropping like a stone on Lap 2, prompting the championship leader to pit for slicks at the end of that lap.

The front-runners didn’t begin to follow suit until Lorenzo, who had since been overtaken by Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) for first position, led Viñales, Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati), and Pedrosa into the pits after Lap 4.

Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) waited another lap, by which time it was clear that Marquez’s pre-race call had turned into a fluke advantage, and he took over the race lead from Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) on Lap 6 before the Frenchman had even made his pit stop for slicks.

Marquez enjoyed a lead of 17 seconds and growing over second-placed Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati) when the pit stops finally shook out.

Pedrosa was sixth, and while he moved into second position on Lap 9 he was never going to overturn a lead which had by then blown out to 22.7s, leaving Marquez to take a third win of the season.

“This morning (warm up session) with the hard rear tyre I didn’t feel well for some reason,” explained Marquez.

“I said, ‘Put the soft,’ but then when we started the race I realised that it was the wrong option.

“When I see it was getting dry I said, ‘This is my time, flag to flag, I will try to attack,’ and I (pitted) very, very early because it was still wet.

“(On the) first and second lap (after pitting) I nearly crashed many, many times but I stayed on the bike and then I started to push.

“When I saw ‘P1, +22’ (on the pit board) that was another race and I just tried to control the distance.”

Viñales similarly made light work in climbing from 11th to third by the end of Lap 15 to minimise the points damage and maintain second in the championship.

Rossi emerged 14th and looked like he had run out of steam as he ran fifth late in the 22-lap race, but found more pace to divebomb Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) on the final lap and finish ahead of the 2016 Czech GP winner in fourth.

Dovizioso passed Petrucci on the final lap to take sixth, with his Italian compatriot seventh.

Aleix Espargaro (Gresini Aprilia) ran as high as third but finished eighth, in part due to a three position penalty he had to give up during the race for an unsafe release in pit lane.

Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM) was ninth despite running off the track at one stage, and Jonas Folger (Tech 3 Yamaha) finished 10th.

Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda) looked on for a possible top 10 but faded to 14th.

Lorenzo was ultimately 15th, with a delay in setting up his second bike for slick tyres costing him time.

Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM) retired late in the race, with Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati) and Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Ducati) the other non-finishers after crashing out.

Andrea Iannone (Suzuki Ecstar) finished 19th having crashed in pit lane, perhaps in part due to being baulked by Aleix Espargaro’s release in front of him.

In Moto2, Remy Gardner was stellar as he rode up to ninth position from 26th on the grid in a race which was reduced to just six laps due to rain, while Tom Luthi won.

MotoGP is back next weekend (August 11-13) in Austria.

Race results: Czech Grand Prix

Championship points: After Round 10