It was a great starting position for Bo Bendsneyder: from eighth place on the grid for the Moto2 race of the Czech Grand Prix. The Dutchman unfortunately could not cash in on that good position in Brno. He finished outside the points, in 17th place. Teammate Steven Odendaal finished 22nd. The start was crucial for Bendsneyder and it was precisely that that went terribly wrong. In the first lap the Dutchman dropped back to 22nd place. He was even passed by Odendaal, who had started from 24th. Gradually Bendsneyder was able to make up for a few places, but overtaking was difficult. As a result, he did not have a real change on gaining some points for a moment. Bendsneyder crossed the line at almost 33 seconds behind race winner Alex Marquez. Odendaal lost more than 46 seconds to the fastest man in Brno. NTS RW Racing GP team manager Jarno Janssen was of course far from satisfied. “This just wasn’t good,” said Janssen. “If you are in the top 15 in dry practices and if you qualify in eighth place, you really have to get some championship points. Steven has missed valuable training time due to a few crashes and is physically not 100 percent because of those crashes. This was the maximum possible for the moment.”
Bo Bendsneyder: “I have to apologize to the team for a start and a first lap that were so bad that I was more or less out of contention from the beginning. I lost way too many places and made it very difficult for myself. I did not feel well on the bike and lost a lot of time when braking into the corners. As a result, it was not possible to catch up. It wasn’t good, but this is a motivation to keep fighting and to show next time that we can really do much better.”
Race results:
Pos | Rider | Team | Time / Gap |
1 | Alex MARQUEZ | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 38’49.768 |
2 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Beta Tools Speed Up | 3.018 |
3 | Enea BASTIANINI | Italtrans Racing Team | 4.158 |
4 | Jorge NAVARRO | Beta Tools Speed Up | 4.290 |
5 | Luca MARINI | SKY Racing Team VR46 | 7.031 |
6 | Marcel SCHROTTER | Dynavolt Intact GP | 8.847 |
7 | Nicolo BULEGA | SKY Racing Team VR46 | 8.937 |
8 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | FLEXBOX HP 40 | 11.900 |
9 | Tetsuta NAGASHIMA | ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team | 12.896 |
10 | Iker LECUONA | American Racing KTM | 19.079 |
11 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | FLEXBOX HP 40 | 20.248 |
12 | Marco BEZZECCHI | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 21.424 |
13 | Jorge MARTIN | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 23.119 |
14 | Andrea LOCATELLI | Italtrans Racing Team | 25.850 |
15 | Somkiat CHANTRA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | 26.240 |
16 | Remy GARDNER | ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team | 26.714 |
17 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | NTS RW Racing GP | 28.917 |
18 | Jake DIXON | Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team | 32.573 |
19 | Jonas FOLGER | Petronas Sprinta Racing | 32.979 |
20 | Stefano MANZI | MV Agusta Temporary Forward | 35.664 |
21 | Dominique AEGERTER | MV Agusta Temporary Forward | 35.865 |
22 | Steven ODENDAAL | NTS RW Racing GP | 46.357 |
23 | Philipp OETTL | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 50.454 |
24 | Xavi VIERGE | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 58.874 |
25 | Xavi CARDELUS | Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team | +1’04.629 |
Not Classified | |||
Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 7 Laps | |
Sam LOWES | Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | 11 Laps | |
Mattia PASINI | Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2 | 11 Laps | |
Thomas LUTHI | Dynavolt Intact GP | 16 Laps | |
Lukas TULOVIC | Kiefer Racing | 16 Laps |
Source: motogp.com, rwracinggp.com