Moto2: Iannone wins four-way Brno battle

Andrea Iannone ended his longest Moto2 win drought in style with a thrilling victory at Brno in the Czech Republic on Sunday.

The Italian, winless since round two at Jerez, was the first of four riders to cross the line within one-second after 20 laps of constant overtaking at the front.

Fifth on lap one, the Speed Master Suter rider joined Stefan Bradl, Marc Marquez, Alex de Angelis and Thomas Luthi in battling bar-to-bar for the lead.

Only Luthi dropped out of contention in the closing stages, with Iannone making his race-winning pass by overtaking rookie Marquez into turn one at the start of the last lap.

Iannone then delivered the best lap of the race to finish 0.161sec ahead of the Repsol rider at the flag.

Marquez in turn crossed the line a mere 0.246sec ahead of title leader Stefan Bradl, who had led the majority of the race.

Marquez nearly collided with Bradl early on the opening lap and took time to regain his rhythm before fighting his way back through the group, making contact with de Angelis on several occasions.

JiR rider de Angelis missed a second podium in a row by less than half-a-second, with Luthi finishing four seconds from victory. Pons rider Alexis Espargaro won another multi-bike battle for sixth.

Bradl is now a reduced 43 points ahead of Marquez, both riders having won four races this season.

Tech 3's Bradley Smith had a short but spectacular race, the rookie rising from 16th on the grid to seventh, missing a falling Jules Cluzel by millimeters then crashing after tripping over Mika Kallio - all within two laps.

Race results:

1. Iannone (Suter) 20 laps
2. Marquez (Suter) +0.161s
3. Bradl (Kalex) +0.407s
4. de Angelis (MotoBI) +0.870s
5. Luthi (Suter) +4.225s
6. A. Espargaro (Pons Kalex) +13.636s
7. Rabat (FTR) +13.647s
8. Aegerter (Suter) +14.365s
9. Corsi (FTR) +14.617s
10. Sofuoglu (Suter) +21.383s
11. Pasini (FTR) +s
12. Corti (Suter) +s
13. Krummenacher (Kalex) +s

26. Redding (Suter) +53.044s
Smith (Tech 3) DNF