Andrea Iannone took his second win of the year in a barn-storming Moto2 Czech Grand Prix at Brno.
The Italian was part of a five-way fight for the lead for most of the race that included Marc Marquez, Stefan Bradl, Alex de Angelis and Thomas Luthi, but managed to eke out a little bit of extra pace when it really mattered.
Iannone, who had a couple of laps in the lead earlier in the race, seized the initiative for good into Turn 1 on the final lap as he shoved his Speedmaster Suter inside Marquez's similar Team Catalunya-run bike. Try as Marquez did, he couldn't get a run on his rival out of either of the uphill esses during the second half of the Brno lap, missing out on victory by just 0.161sec.
The Spanish teenager, in fact, had his work cut out to fend off Bradl, who spent more laps in the lead than anyone else. The German had one final attempt to wrest second from Marquez into Turn 3 on the final lap, but ran wide and had to settle for the final podium spot. In being beaten by Marquez, the Kiefer Racing Kalex rider saw his championship lead cut from 47 points to 43 with seven races remaining.
Fourth place went to the JIR Motobi of de Angelis, but the San Marino rider twice made contact with Marquez during the race and was luck to stay on. He was within a second of Iannone by the flag but comfortably beat Luthi, as the Interwetten Suter rider dropped back by over a second a lap from the lead pack during the final four tours.
Aleix Espargaro won an entertaining scrap for sixth place with his fellow Spaniard Esteve Rabat, the Pons Kalex rider beating the Blusens FTR man by just 0.011s.
Behind them Technomag-CIP Suter team-mates Dominique Aegerter and Kenan Sofuoglu finished either side of Simone Corsi's ninth-placed Ioda FTR.
Britain's Bradley Smith was lucky not to be wiped out when Jules Cluzel crashed in front of him at Turn 1 on the second lap. But the Tech 3 rider retired just half a lap later after suffering a massive accident while exiting one of the high-speed esses.
There were also early exits for Max Neukirchner's MZ and for Rabat's teammate Yonni Hernandez.