Sam Lowes rode a faultless race to finish second at the Czech Grand Prix while Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS team-mate Augusto Fernandez finishes an excellent season best fifth.

• Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS had reason to celebrate in the Czech Republic for the fourth round of the 2020 Moto2 season, as Sam Lowes scored the team’s first podium finish of the year and Augusto Fernandez posted his best finish of the season so far.
• Track conditions were extremely tough with riders having to manage tyre degradation in track temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius on an extremely bumpy surface with very little grip over 19 laps.

/// AUGUSTO FERNANDEZ, 5^th + 9.392 s.

• The excellent work through the weekend from the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS squad gave the rider from the Balearic Islands greater feel with the front end which helped him to qualify in eighth place.
• He passed Marcel Schrotter for seventh on lap three and from there he needed his fighting instincts to challenge the fast quartet of Jorge Martin, Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi for fourth place.
• The three-time Moto2 race winner overtook Martin on lap nine and Bezzecchi on lap 14 to finish an excellent fifth, his best result of the season. His improvement was clear in his race time: Augusto finished 24 seconds behind the winner at the Andalusian Grand Prix. Today he was just 10 seconds behind.
• The eleven points for fifth place see Augusto climb to thirteenth in the World Championship with 17 points to his name.

“We are coming, getting back the confidence and good feelings”

“It was nice to be fighting at the front again! All weekend I’ve felt good. In the middle of the race I didn’t quite have enough for Bastianini. He rode really smoothly. I made a few mistakes. Well done to him. He’s coming off a great result at Jerez. He’s come here and ridden well. I can still take the positives. In the race I was losing too much time in one corner and it was hard to come back from that. Anyway, I just have to say thank you to the team because in every session the bike improves a lot and, each weekend, I feel comfortable. That’s something I’ve been missing these past few years. Thanks to them and hopefully we can keep this going and take this form to Austria!”

/// SAM LOWES: 2nd +0.423 s.

• The Lincolnshire rider carried his excellent weekend form into Sunday by setting the fastest time in morning warm-up. Lowes placed either first or second in every session this weekend.
• Starting from second on the grid, the 28-year old was demoted to third at the first turn. But the Englishman showed great determination to pass Joe Roberts for second at turn three on lap two.
• Lowes then set about cutting the 0.8s deficit to Enea Bastianini, who had led from the first turn. His lap times were incredibly consistent and never gave up. Even on the final lap he was pushing the leader, closing to within 0.4s of first by the chequered flag.
• Second place is Lowes’ first podium finish in grand prix racing since the Grand Prix of Aragon in September, 2016. The 20 points for second promote him to fourth in the World Championship, 27 points behind the leader.

“It was nice to be fighting at the front again”

“It was nice to be fighting at the front again! All weekend I’ve felt good. In the middle of the race I didn’t quite have enough for Bastianini. He rode really smoothly. I made a few mistakes. Well done to him. He’s coming off a great result at Jerez. He’s come here and ridden well. I can still take the positives. In the race I was losing too much time in one corner and it was hard to come back from that. Anyway, I just have to say thank you to the team because in every session the bike improves a lot and each weekend I feel comfortable. That’s something I’ve been missing these past few years. Thanks to them and hopefully we can keep this going and take this form to Austria!”

/// JOAN OLIVÉ, Team Manager:

“We are really with both riders’ performances”

“We are really, really happy about today’s results and with both riders’ performances. Sam deserved this after another great weekend pushing hard all the time and being at the top in all of the practice sessions. Today the race pace came from all of his hard work during the weekend. With Augusto we made a clear step forward from Jerez and he was fighting in the top group. This fifth position is a big confidence boost and a great result for him.”