Marc Marquez secured his fourth victory of 2019 in the Catalan Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, while Jorge Lorenzo caused a multi-bike pile-up early on.
It was Andrea Dovizioso who led the first lap, courtesy of a blistering start from sixth to lead Marquez and Maverick Vinales heading on to lap two.
Lorenzo meanwhile also made a great start, rising from 10th to fourth on lap one, and looked to challenge Vinales heading into Turn 10.
Marquez had the same idea and moved past Dovizioso to take the lead at the same corner. Lorenzo though tucked the front as he attempted to dive past the Yamaha, clattering into Vinales and taking Dovizioso as well as Valentino Rossi down with them.
All four were forced to retire from the race as a result, leaving Marquez with a handy advantage out in front and allowing Danilo Petrucci as well as slow starting pole-man Fabio Quartararo into second and third respectively.
Marquez continued to edge away until Quartararo managed to move past Petrucci in the closing stages, the Frenchman then taking around half-a-second per lap out of Marquez in the final laps.
His charge came too late though and he was forced to settle for second, albeit achieving the first podium finish for himself and his Petronas SRT team in MotoGP.
Petrucci took third place in what was a tough race for the Mugello winner, as he struggled to keep an aggressive Alex Rins behind for most of the race.
The Suzuki rider eventually bashed his way past Petrucci at Turn 4 and tried to pull away, but was unable to hold off the Ducati’s monstrous straight line pace as he dropped back behind on the main straight a couple laps later.
Rins then made a mistake while trying to re-take second into Turn 1, nearly losing the rear of his Suzuki. He narrowly avoided going down, running wide and falling to sixth as a result, but was able to recover to fourth by the flag.
Jack Miller secured fifth just ahead of the second Suzuki of Joan Mir, who took his best MotoGP finish with sixth, while Pol Espargaro took another encouraging result for KTM in seventh.
Takaaki Nakagami brought his LCR Honda home in eighth, while Tito Rabat and Johann Zarco scored their first top 10 finishes of the season in ninth and tenth for the Avintia and KTM squads respectively.
In a race where only 13 riders saw the chequered flag Andrea Iannone, Miguel Oliveira and Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli also took points.
Cal Crutchlow looked set for a top five finish in the closing laps, but crashed out into the gravel at Turn 4 as he tried to make a move for fourth on Jack Miller. The Brit retired on the spot.
Marquez extends his title advantage to 37 points ahead of Dovizioso, while Rins and Petrucci close up to within two and five points of Dovizioso.
Discussion about this post