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Barcelona MotoGP: Marquez wins; Lorenzo takes out Dovizioso, Rossi

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

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 polesitter 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 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 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 Suzuki tried another Turn 1 move next time by, he came in too hot, just avoided collecting Petrucci and nearly high-sided off his GSX-RR, tumbling down the order.

This 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 behind Petrucci, 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 team-mate 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 just 13 finishers.

Nakagami's LCR team-mate 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 and Francesco Bagnaia also crashed, as did Karel Abraham on the opening lap - on which Hafizh Syahrin retired too.

The two Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro and tester Bradley Smith were among the retirements as well, 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 result

Pos Rider Team Laps Gap
1 Marc Marquez Honda 24 40m31.175s
2 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha 24 2.660s
3 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 24 4.537s
4 Alex Rins Suzuki 24 6.602s
5 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati 24 6.870s
6 Joan Mir Suzuki 24 7.040s
7 Pol Espargaro KTM 24 16.144s
8 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda 24 17.969s
9 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati 24 22.661s
10 Johann Zarco KTM 24 26.228s
11 Andrea Iannone Aprilia 24 32.036s
12 Miguel Oliveira Tech3 KTM 24 44.666s
13 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki 24 51.363s
- Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 18 Retirement
- Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha 16 Retirement
- Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati 5 Retirement
- Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 KTM 3 Retirement
- Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2 Retirement
- Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2 Retirement
- Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1 Retirement
- Jorge Lorenzo Honda 1 Retirement
- Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1 Retirement
- Karel Abraham Avintia Ducati 0 Retirement
- Bradley Smith Aprilia 0 Retirement

Riders' standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Marc Marquez 140
2 Andrea Dovizioso 103
3 Alex Rins 101
4 Danilo Petrucci 98
5 Valentino Rossi 72
6 Jack Miller 53
7 Fabio Quartararo 51
8 Takaaki Nakagami 48
9 Pol Espargaro 47
10 Cal Crutchlow 42
11 Maverick Vinales 40
12 Franco Morbidelli 34
13 Aleix Espargaro 27
14 Joan Mir 22
15 Jorge Lorenzo 19
16 Johann Zarco 16
17 Miguel Oliveira 12
18 Andrea Iannone 12
19 Michele Pirro 9
20 Francesco Bagnaia 9
21 Tito Rabat 9
22 Stefan Bradl 6
23 Sylvain Guintoli 3
24 Karel Abraham 2
25 Hafizh Syahrin 2
26 Bradley Smith 0


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