By Lisa Lewis
Jonas Folger took victory aboard his Mapfre Aspar Kalex KTM at the Czech Republic Moto3 Grand Prix at Brno.
German rider Folger disappeared at the front and coasted home to win by 5.918 seconds after at one point leading by over ten.
It is his second career victory after winning in the wet at
Silverstone 's 125cc race in 2011. Folger said in parc ferme that “I was really not thinking I could go so fast in the beginning... but I tried to make safe laps and the win”.
The race was declared wet after a downpour in warm-up and the riders tiptoed their way around the opening corners as almost the entire field went out on slick tyres around the drying track, Efren Vazquez was the early leader after taking a gamble and using wets, eventually finishing 25th.
Luis Salom followed Vinales and Cortese as they battled ahead of him and a late move saw him push past the duelling pair for second. The Spaniard said he “slipped too much in the first part of the race...I push and push and make the most of what I have”.
Championship leader Sandro Cortese sat mid-pack for most of the race and closed down the leaders as the race went on aboard the Red Bull KTM, charging all the way to third on the podium.
He was angry that Salom had got ahead of him late on, but was pleased to finish ahead of Vinales “after Maverick was so strong all weekend”, increasing his championship lead over the Spaniard.
Maverick Vinales had to settle for fourth after he took his time to find his confidence in the conditions and lost out in the podium battle on his Blusesns Avintia.
Alex Rins was fifth for the Estrella Galicia team while Jakub Kornfeil finished sixth in his 50th grand prix start at his home race for Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta, after running in second until the last lap.
Danny Kent was seventh for Red Bull KTM after leaving his push for the front too late while rookie Romano Fenati was eighth for Team Italia FMI.