Tom Luthi reignited his title challenge with a dominant victory in a fragmented Czech Grand Prix, while standings leader Franco Morbidelli struggled to eighth.
The Swiss rider has not won a race since the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, and now leaves Brno having halved his gap to Morbidelli in the championship to 17 points.
The race initially got underway in dry conditions, with pole man Mattia Pasini retaking the lead from the fast-starting Miguel Oliveira into Turn 5.
Franco Morbidelli hounded his compatriot, but could not find a way past until Pasini backed off when the rain intensified on the seventh lap.
With several other riders signalling to Race Direction, the race was red-flagged – a six-lap sprint on wet tyres taking place at the restart.
While most opted for fresh wet rubber, Luthi – as well as Alex Marquez – went for a used option, and this gave Luthi supreme confidence off the line to take the holeshot.
Luthi immediately checked out and came under no threat across the six laps, cruising to a vital 15th career win ahead of Marquez and Oliveira.
Morbidelli could not afford to throw caution to the win, and by the second lap he had dropped behind Xavie Vierge and Luca Marini in seventh.
The Italian’s struggles prevailed and he only just held off a hard charge from Tech3’s Remy Gardner to take eighth at the chequered flag.
Marini ended a barren run to claim a career-best fourth on his Forward Kalex, while Vierge – who only just made it out of pit lane within the one-minute window before the restart – completed the top five having originally qualified 18th.
Simone Corsi put on a few hard moves to steal sixth, with Francesco Bagnaia close behind in seventh. Moto2 rookie Joe Roberts rounded out the top 10, with Jorge Navarro, Brad Binder, Andrea Locatelli, Khairul Idham Pawi and Hafizh Syahrin completing the points paying positions.
Pole man Pasini – starting his 200th grand prix – was running at the sharp end when he crashed at Turn 11 on the opening lap.
