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Barcelona MotoGP: Marquez wins, Lorenzo triggers pile-up

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez dominated the Catalan Grand Prix at Barcelona, after a crash for his Honda teammate Jorge Lorenzo took Andrea Dovizioso and the two factory Yamahas out of the race.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Lorenzo, who had charged from 10th on the grid to join the lead battle, fell at the sharp Turn 10 left-hander while trying to pass Maverick Vinales, taking down his compatriot, as well as Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi in the process.

Marquez overtook pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo off the line, but yielded to a fast-starting Dovizioso at Turn 1, and was soon also briefly overtaken by Vinales.

Having regained second place, the championship leader pressured Dovizioso, and snuck past the Ducati man on the second lap at Turn 10.

At that same corner, Lorenzo committed down the inside of Vinales for third place but hit the deck on corner entry.

His bike clattered into Dovizioso's rear, and the resulting crash removed both Vinales and Rossi – who had gone wide to avoid the pile-up - from the race.

The crash left Marquez on his own up front, and promoted Ducati's Danilo Petrucci to second place, the Italian unable to keep pace with the Honda man but managing to fend off both Suzuki's Alex Rins and Quartararo, who had been as low as ninth after the opening lap.

On the 10th lap, Rins launched his bike down the inside of Petrucci at Turn 1, briefly getting ahead but running wide on exit, allowing Petrucci to sweep around the outside of Turn 2.

The same sequence of events was repeated two laps later, and it was another two laps before Petrucci opened the door at the sweeping Turn 4 right-hander and allowed Rins to barge past.

But Petrucci then slipstreamed back ahead of Rins at Turn 1 on lap 17, and when the Spaniard tried another Turn 1 move next time by, he came in too hot, just avoided collecting Petrucci and nearly highsided off his GSX-RR, tumbling down the order.

Thus had unsettled Petrucci enough to allow Quartararo to get past just a few corners later with a move at Turn 4, but by that point Marquez was already more than five seconds clear.

The Honda man eased off for the final laps, taking the chequered flag 2.7s ahead of Quartararo, who celebrated his and his Petronas Yamaha team's first podium in MotoGP.

Rins recovered to fourth, passing the fading Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller on the final lap, with Miller keeping the other Suzuki of Joan Mir at bay at the line.

Pol Espargaro was the lead KTM in seventh, while his works teammate Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10, the pair split by LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat.

Aprilia's Andrea Iannone, Tech 3 KTM's Miguel Oliveira and Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli completed the list of 13 finishers.

Nakagami's LCR teammate Cal Crutchlow crashed out after a failed overtaking attempt on Miller with six laps to go, falling off in the gravel at Turn 4.

Italian riders Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) also crashed, as did Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) on the opening lap – which also saw Hafizh Syahrin (Tech 3 KTM) retire.

The two Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro and tester Bradley Smith were too among the retirements, seemingly coming together in a big opening-lap crash.

Marquez leaves Barcelona with a 37-point lead over Dovizioso, with Rins and Petrucci a further two and five points behind the Ducati man respectively.

Race results

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 93 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 24
2 20 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 24 2.660
3 9 Italy Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 24 4.537
4 42 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 24 6.602
5 43 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 24 6.870
6 36 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 24 7.040
7 44 Spain Pol Espargaro
KTM 24 16.144
8 30 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 24 17.969
9 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 24 22.661
10 5 France Johann Zarco
KTM 24 26.228
11 29 Italy Andrea Iannone
Aprilia 24 32.036
12 88 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 24 44.666
13 50 France Sylvain Guintoli
Suzuki 24 51.363
35 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow
Honda 18
21 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 16
63 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 5
55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin
KTM 3
46 Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 2
4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 2
12 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 1
99 Spain Jorge Lorenzo
Honda 1
41 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1
17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham
Ducati
38 United Kingdom Bradley Smith
Aprilia

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