Marc Marquez won the Czech MotoGP for his eighth victory in 12 races this season and fifth in a row, extending his commanding lead in the world championship.

The factory Ducati rider beat Marco Bezzecchi on an Aprilia by almost two seconds on Sunday, while Pedro Acosta on a KTM came in third in his first race podium finish of the season.

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Marquez had a fifth straight perfect weekend, winning both the sprint on Saturday and Sunday’s race.

The 32-year-old Spaniard now leads the world championship with 381 points, 120 ahead of his younger brother Alex who crashed, and 168 ahead of Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia.

“It has been a super first part of the season and especially these last races,” Marquez said.

“I feel better and better and I’m riding super good,” he added.

Marquez outpaces his rivals

Bagnaia started from pole on a sunny Sunday at Brno but only retained the lead until the second lap when Bezzecchi eased past him, with Marquez following suit soon afterwards.

Acosta did the same to settle down in third after getting a boost from a third-place finish in Saturday’s sprint.

Marquez glided past Bezzecchi on lap eight as the runaway trio kept building up their lead, and as so often this season kept widening the gap comfortably.

The three stayed put until the finish line, although fourth-placed Bagnaia gave Acosta a hard time pressing from behind.

“The first lap was unbelievable,” said Bezzecchi.

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“I had so much fun in the first half of the race but unfortunately when Marc passed me I immediately saw that he had something more.”

“I tried to attack but he was strong. Anyway, I made a fantastic performance, I’m very, very happy,” added the Italian.

Reigning world champion Jorge Martin collected his first points after finishing seventh in the first race he has completed this year.

Martin sat out the first three races following two pre-season crashes, and when he returned at Qatar in April, he crashed heavily again during the race and missed the next seven events.

Brno returns faster than ever

Marquez took 40min 04.628sec to complete the 21 laps on the resurfaced 5.4-kilometre Brno circuit returning to the MotoGP calendar after a five-year break due to financial woes.

The enhanced on-track results of the Brno resurfacing was evident with lap times this year several seconds under the previous lap record.

Bezzecchi crossed the line 1.753 seconds adrift of Marquez, while Acosta trailed the six-time MotoGP champion by 3.366sec.

Almost 220,000 fans gathered in the stands for the weekend as Marquez recorded his fourth MotoGP win at Brno after victories in 2013, 2017 and 2019.

Alex Marquez retired after crashing on lap two to leave Brno without a point following a disappointing 17th spot in the sprint race.

He took out Joan Mir who also walked away from the gravel safety area, just like Enea Bastianini a lap later.

Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami was ruled out of the race after suffering a knee injury in a crash in Saturday’s sprint.

The MotoGP circus will now take a summer break and resume with the Austrian GP on August 15-17.

“Now it’s the summer break but still 10 races to go. Time to relax, but in Austria I (will) keep the same mentality with the same intensity,” said Marquez.

He is eyeing his seventh MotoGP world title – and first since 2019 – that would put him level with Valentino Rossi and one behind the legendary Giacomo Agostini.