MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The temperature continued to climb in Most, hitting over 30ºC, and the twenty two lap race would be missing Sam Lowes after his race one crash. This race would be the last of the first half of the season.

Three bikes came together in turn one, with Danilo Petrucci and Alvaro Bautista crashing out as Andrea Iannone took the escape road and recovered in last place. Nicolo Bulega had a better start and took the lead into turn one ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Remy Gardner and Alex Lowes. A lap later, Michael van der Mark passed both Gardner and Lowes to take third place and on lap two he set the fastest lap, a 1'32.100.

Alex Lowes jumped the start and was handed a double long lap penalty and he only lost two places, two seconds on track, from his first penalty.

At the start of lap five, Razgatlioglu closed up on Bulega and chipped away throughout the lap, passing Bulega on the exit of turn fifteen. Bulega couldn't strike back and Razgatlioglu used his better early lap pace to build a gap that would extend to half a second halfway through the lap, but Bulega's end of lap pace closed the gap to three tenths at the start of lap seven.

Michael van der Mark couldn't keep up his early lap pace and dropped to seven tenths of a second off the two riders ahead of him, dropping to over a second off the pace a lap later. Andrea Locatelli in fourth place was matching van der Mark's pace over a second behind him with Remy Gardner troubling him behind.

Further back, Xavi Vierge put the moves on Axel Bassani, taking seventh place under two seconds behind sixth-placed Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

At half race distance, eleven of twenty two laps completed, once again it was Toprak Razgatlioglu and Nicolo Bulega running away at the front, a second separating them, but off-script, Michael van der Mark held third place two seconds behind Bulega with Andrea Locatelli and Remy Gardner stretched out behind. Michael Ruben Rinaldi held a lonely sixth place, two seconds off Gardner and two seconds clear of Iker Lecuona, Xavi Vierge and Jonathan Rea. Rea forced his way past Vierge at the start of lap thirteen into turn one.

Lap fourteen, Andrea Locatelli caught Michael van der Mark down the straight and, on the exit of turn one, the pair lined up together with Locatelli using the outside line in turn one to be inside of turn two. Locatelli cleanly took third place as behind the pass, Remy Gardner set his sights on van der Mark. Further back, Jonathan Rea closed up on Iker Lecuona intending to take seventh place from the Honda.

Lap sixteen, Razgatlioglu led Bulega by two seconds as the pair escaped at the front. Locatelli in third couldn't break free of van der Mark who was determined to take the last podium spot back as Gardner looked on. Rea passed Lecuona into turn fifteen on lap seventeen, and in spite of some spirited attempts from Lecuona, Rea held the spot and started to close on Rinaldi ahead of him, lapping four tenths of a second of the bike in front of him and starting lap nineteen just over a second off.

With three laps left, Razgatlioglu was comfortably in the lead with Bulega in a safe second place. Locatelli broke free of van der Mark who had a determined Gardner to deal with behind him. Rea was lapping half a second quicker than Rinaldi and Rea wasted no time getting in his wake, aiming for his sixth place.

At the start of the penultimate lap, Gardner and van der Mark swapped back and forth down the straight after Gardner took fourth place off him in turn twenty. Rea took sixth place cleanly from Rinaldi and wasted no time breaking free to start the last lap clear of the Ducati. Axel Bassani crashed out on the last lap, running into Xavi Vierge, to end a miserable weekend with no points scored.

Toprak Razgatlioglu won the race by over three seconds on the rear wheel down the length of the straight as Nicolo Bulega relaxed his pace on the last lap. Andrea Locatelli filled the last place of the podium with Remi Gardner and Michael van der Mark missing out. Four seconds further back, Jonathan Rea took sixth place. Iker Lecuona was penalised three places after not losing enough time after running off the track while Alex Lowes finished in ninth place in spite of a jump start and two long lap penalties.

Toprak Razgatlioglu celebrated his tenth win in a row by sitting down and playing a game in the gravel trap before returning to parc fermé sixty four points ahead of Nicolo Bulega and one hundred and four points ahead of Alvaro Bautista. Alex Lowes consolidated his fourth place in the championship just twenty points off Bautista. Razgatlioglu was handed the trophy by famed BMW rider Petr Pavel, the president of the Czech Republic. 

At the halfway point of the championship, six weekends of twelve down, Toprak Razgatlioglu is clearly in charge of the championship on his BMW with the rookie Nicolo Bulega his closest rival on the Ducati. 

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