Jorge Lorenzo leads home his teammate Valentino Rossi to claim his fourth consecutive victory as Marc Marquez crashes out.
Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo led from start to finish for the fourth race in succession to close the gap on his teammate Rossi in the standings to just one point.
The Spaniard controlled the race from the front to claim the second 1-2 of the season for his Factory Yamaha team.
Repsol Honda’s Marquez was battling with Lorenzo for the lead in the opening stages of the 25-lap race but he crashed out at turn 10 on the third lap.
That error put another big dent in the Repsol Honda rider’s bid for a third straight premier class title, with Marquez now 69-points adrift of Rossi following his third crash in seven races.
Track temperatures this afternoon reached almost 50 degrees and were the hottest recorded over the weekend, as the MotoGP™ race at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya got underway in front of a packed crowd of over 97,000 fans. Lorenzo led into the first corner as Team Suzuki Ecstar’s pole-man Aleix Espargaro dropped down to 9th after he struggled to propel his GSX-RR off the line.
Lorenzo immediately set about establishing a fast rhythm, and by the time Rossi had moved into second on lap 4, the Spaniard had already opened up a 1.5 second lead.
Rossi put in a tremendous effort in the second half of the race to try and deny Lorenzo a fourth straight win for the first time in his career, but the could not get within a second in the crucial final stages.
The nine-times World Champion had to settle for second, 0.885s behind Lorenzo, who took his 37th premier class win to equal the tally set by British legend Mike Hailwood.
Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa rode a lonely race in third. He finished over 19-seconds behind Lorenzo but it was his first rostrum finish since he underwent major right arm pump surgery after the opening round in Qatar. Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone claimed fourth after a great fight with Bradley Smith on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1. The British rider crossed the line in fifth as the leading Satellite rider.
Maverick Viñales on the second GSX-RR recovered from way down outside of the top 10 after a disastrous start from the front row to finish in a career best sixth position.
Scott Redding (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) equalled the best result of his MotoGP™ career in seventh, with Stefan Bradl (Athina Forward Racing) taking the Open class win in eighth.
Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) and Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) completed the top ten, as a number of riders crashed out on the slippery track surface.
Yonny Hernandez, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, and both of the Espargaro brothers all crashed, as only 16 riders completed the race.
99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 42'53.208 165.32 20 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 42'54.093 165.2 0.8853 16 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 43'12.663 164.0 19.4554 13 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 43'18.133 163.7 24.9255 11 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 43'20.990 163.5 27.7826 10 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 43'22.767 163.4 29.5597 9 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 43'29.632 163.0 36.4248 8 6 Stefan BRADL GER Athinà Forward Racing YAMAHA FORWARD 43'35.311 162.6 42.1039 7 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing DUCATI 43'42.558 162.2 49.35010 6 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 43'45.777 162.0 52.56911 5 43 Jack MILLER AUS CWM LCR Honda HONDA 43'46.874 161.9 53.66612 4 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team HONDA 43'48.973 161.8 55.76513 3 76 Loris BAZ FRA Athinà Forward Racing YAMAHA FORWARD 43'49.040 161.8 55.83214 2 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing DUCATI 44'02.245 161.0 1'09.03715 1 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 44'18.471 160.0 1'25.26316 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing DUCATI 43'35.670 156.1 1 lapNot classified41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 34'37.015 163.8 5 laps69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team HONDA 23'20.849 157.9 12 laps33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 10'58.022 155.1 19 laps4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 11'39.502 145.9 19 laps44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 6'57.659 162.9 21 laps93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 5'55.818 143.4 22 laps35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR CWM LCR Honda HONDA 7'12.563 118.0 22 laps68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing DUCATI 3'30.978 161.3 23 laps.
