Repsol rider places tenth in heavy rain and reduces gap to series leader. Aron Canet crashes out when up into fourth.
Jorge Navarro had a positive Czech GP on Sunday, staying upright at Brno amidst heavy rain and completing the race. The tricky conditions had caught out Moto3 World Championship rival Brad Binder earlier on, as the South African crashed out when leading the contest, and Navarro took advantage by placing tenth and cutting the gap in the standings by six points. The Repsol rider made a great comeback from seventeenth after the opening lap, progressing as high as sixth. However, several scares on the final laps, caused by his riding around a mechanical issue, led to Navarro taking a more cautious approach to bring the bike home. He trails Binder by 59 points in the race for the title.
Teammate Aron Canet had been fighting for a podium spot at Brno, but suffered a crash at Turn 3 when riding fourth, eleven laps from the end.
Jorge Navarro, 10th at 16.681 seconds
“The overall verdict on the race is positive. In the situation that we had, we could have cut more points off Binder’s advantage, but on the final laps I had a scare that hit my confidence. Besides that, I’d also been experiencing a problem with the shifter that made it difficult to fight in the lead group. Despite that, I leave Brno with a good feeling, because we overcame starting from far back to cut six points to the World Championship leader.”
Aron Canet, No Classified
“I think it was a very positive race; we have improved a lot, both in the wet and the dry, and have gained significant experience. In the race I did not get a good start, but nevertheless I rode well on the first few corners and, after overtaking some riders, I latched onto the leading group. I tried to go faster coming out of the chicane, in order to have a chance to overtake Martin, but I had a little scare. On the next lap I crashed under braking, losing the front.”
