Former MotoAmerica class champion and current Moto2 World Championship competitor Joe Roberts notched the third race victory of his international career.
Aboard his OnlyFans American Racing Team Kalex, Roberts started from the middle of the front row for the Tissot Grand Prix of Czechia at Automotodrom Brno, which is the same venue where he claimed his debut Moto2 podium back in 2020.
The Californian fended off a hard challenge from polesitter Barry Baltus, who led the race at the end of Lap 1 with a great move at the final corner to overtake Roberts’ teammate Marcos Ramirez at the front. Roberts hounded Baltus and moved into the lead on Lap 7. On Lap 10, Roberts set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:59.4 versus Baltus’s 1:59.6. With five to go, the gap was still just 0.2 of a second between the American and Belgian, but with four laps to go, Roberts increased his lead to just under 0.4 of a second.
With two laps to go, Roberts was keeping Baltus at bay with a 0.5 of a second gap, which he increased to 0.6 of a second on the final run to the checkered flag. Baltus wasn’t close enough to attempt a last-gasp pass on Roberts and, for the first time since the 2024 Italian GP, Roberts stood on the top step of the Moto2 podium.
The victory moved Roberts all the way up from 13th to 10th in the 2025 Moto2 Championship points standings, and he is now one point out of ninth and one position higher than his Spanish teammate Ramirez with 10 races left to go in the season.
