The Japan Times - Marc Marquez wins Czech MotoGP to close gap on banned Bezzecchi

Pole sitter Ai Ogura of Japan finished second ahead of Marquez's factory Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia.

Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi sat out the race as a penalty for slapping a track steward in the face following a crash in Saturday's sprint.

But the Italian on a factory Aprilia still leads the MotoGP rankings with 180 points, ahead of his teammate Jorge Martin with 172, Fabio Di Giannantonio on a Ducati with 157 and Marc Marquez with 140.

On a scorching hot day in the second Czech city of Brno, pole sitter Ogura on an Aprilia took the lead on the first lap with Bagnaia and Marquez tucked behind him.

Bagnaia struck first in the second lap and Marquez followed seconds later, the two factory Ducatis settling down at the top with Ogura third.

Marquez circled patiently behind Bagnaia, narrowing his gap on his teammate to a tenth of a second by the 11th of 21 laps.

The seven-time MotoGP champion struck in lap 16, overtaking Bagnaia and immediately getting away to seal his fifth MotoGP victory on the Brno circuit.

Moments later, Bagnaia also gave in to mounting pressure from Ogura.

Ogura closed in on Marquez in the final laps but settled for second, while Bagnaia held off Di Giannantonio in fourth.

The three also topped Saturday's sprint won by Bagnaia ahead of Ogura and Marquez.

"A super important victory," said Marquez. "Super happy."

- 'A tough one' -

Marquez came back to racing in Hungary after sitting out two Grand Prix with a broken foot, and ahead of Brno he admitted he was not entirely fit yet.

"You know that I never give up, in the last laps I was suffering a lot. The bike was there but I was empty and then I just tried to keep the pace," said the 33-year-old Spaniard.

"I saw that Ogura was pushing, but not enough to catch me. They were the longest six laps of the year," he added.

Ogura said the race was "a really tough one".

"I think I got a good pace towards the end but he (Marquez) has something more," the 25-year-old Trackhouse MotoGP Team rider said.

"Overall the quality of the weekend was a lot better than the other races so we can be happy about that. Time to celebrate!"

Bagnaia, the world champion in 2022 and 2023, said he had a hard time holding on to Marquez and Ogura after they had overtaken him.

"I needed to slow down a bit and then the last three laps I tried to be back on my pace to try to control (Di Giannantonio) who was arriving very fast," the 29-year-old Italian added.

It was a dark weekend for the Aprilia Racing team -- besides Bezzecchi's ban, Martin finished ninth after serving two long-lap penalties for causing a crash in the Hungarian GP in which he took out four riders including Bezzecchi.

The MotoGP circus has two races to go before the summer break, resuming in the Netherlands next weekend.

Earlier on Sunday, Spain's Ivan Ortola took his maiden win in the Moto2 class despite serving a long-lap penalty, while Malaysia's Hakim Danish also relished his first-ever win in the Moto3 category.

T.Ikeda--JT