After two races dominated by Ana Carrasco, at Brno it was the turn of Galang Hendra Pratama. The Indonesian rider led the race from the first to the seventh of 10 laps, when the race was red-flagged due to a crash involving Maximilian Kappler and Ali Adrian Rusmiputro (the latter taken to Medical Centre). Pratama went back to win after 2017 Jerez Round and on the podium he was joined by Walid Khan (2nd) and Borja Sánchez (3rd).
GALANG DOMINATES – From pole position, scored after dominating Free Practice sessions and Superpole, Pratama was initially stuck in the big SSP300 pack, but at Turn 3 he started his escape by overtaking Scott Deroue and Ana Carrasco. Pratama then increased his advantage on his opponents and at the sixth lap, the one results were finally based on, the gap between him and Walid Khan was of almost five seconds. This way the BIBLION MotoXRacing Yamaha rider gave one more win to Yamaha after 2017 Jerez race, which had been won by Pratama himself (but as a wild card).
GREAT BATTLE BEHIND – While Pratama kept an unreachable pace from the first lap, a very big group (sometimes even 17 riders!) battled for the podium, including also ladies María Herrera and Ana Carrasco. At the end, after a great series of overtakes, the fight was won by Walid Khan, who scored his first podium in the championship. The ex-Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Dutchman led the pack for almost all the race and he was just sporadically bothered by his compatriots Glenn van Straalen, Scott Deroue and Koen Meuffels and Borja Sánchez. The Spaniard is who joined Pratama and Khan on the podium.
THE REST – Behind Sánchez, who seems able to finish the season despite budget issues, Koen Meuffels and Glenn van Straalen ranked fourth and fifth in front of Nick Kalinin (back after Imola injury). Top 10 included also Scott Deroue, Dani Valle, María Herrera and Luca Grünwald, while championship leader Ana Carrasco finished 11th. 32nd place for lady wild card Alexandra Pelikanova. In addition to Kappler and Rusmiputro, also Tomas Alonso (technical issues), Tom Edwards and Imanuel Putra Pratna (both fallen) retired.
Photo Credit: Yamaha Racing