Photo finish for Garcia in Race 1

Spaniard wins as Red Bull Rookies stage a battle to the line

Marc Garcia stole victory on the line from Aleix Viu, Ayumu Sasaki and Raúl Fernández in a photo finish in Race 1 in Brno. The 16-year-old Spaniard was third into the last left/right sequence of corners as Sasaki passed Viu for the lead, but had the perfect drive from his KTM RC 250 R through the right-hander to the line - while Viu repassed Sasaki, with Fernandez so narrowly missing the podium.

15-year-old Spaniard Aleix Viu repassed Ayumu Sasaki near the end of the race it looked as though he had stolen the win from the 15-year-old Japanese rider, but it wasn’t to be. Sasaki remains very much on top of the table, although his points lead over Viu has shrunk to 19.

Raul Fernández wasn’t satisfied with his P4 finish, ahead of Makar Yurchenko, who completed the top 5. Mattia Casadei had a good ried to P6, as the Italian only lost out on a shot at the podium through a mistake on the last lap. Patrik Pulkkinen smashed the lap record, led the race but slid off on lap 12 of 14, with Kaito Toba another crasher.

Race 2 sees the Red Bull Rookies get back on track on Sunday for another thrilling battle.