Brno MotoGP: Marc Marquez wins fourth consecutive race

The Spaniard prevailed in a race-long, three-way fight with Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, with the trio covered by less than half a second for much of the race.

Poleman Cal Crutchlow's bid to end a 22-year wait for a British winner meanwhile failed when he fell at the halfway mark. He managed to restart, but ended down in 17th.

In his absence the fight for victory boiled down to the usual suspects, with Lorenzo holding the advantage after seizing the lead away from the line.

Honda duo Marquez and Pedrosa, who followed the Spaniard through past Crutchlow away from the line, initially lost ground but gradually closed back onto the tail of the lead Yamaha.

By the halfway mark the three were locked together at the front, Marquez looking increasingly aggressive. To add to the tension spots of rain began to fall, leading to the white flag flying - allowing riders to pit and change for wet tyres at their discretion.

With eight laps to go the fight kicked off in earnest when Marquez snatched the lead at Turn 3, only for Lorenzo to stick it out around the outside and reclaim the advantage one turn later.

The pair traded blows again, including an excellent pass by Lorenzo at the final turn, but Marquez eventually settled matters when he dived through at Turn 3 and this time fended off Lorenzo's attempt to stay on the outside.

Unable to launch another attack, the Yamaha man then came under pressure from Pedrosa, who managed to pick him off two laps from the end.

It was too late to hunt down Marquez however, with the 20-year-old taking a fifth win - unmatched by any rookie in the history of the premier class - and extending his championship lead.

Valentino Rossi meanwhile claimed fourth after his own race-long battle with front-row man Alvaro Bautista, which like the lead battle included several changes of position.

With Crutchlow and Tech 3 stable-mate Bradley Smith exiting, Stefan Bradl came home a relatively quiet sixth.

Ducati duo Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden staged a repeat of their Indianapolis battle, although this time there was no final-corner clash as the Italian nicked seventh by just three tenths of a second.

Results - 22 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 42m50.729s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    +0.313s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                   +2.277s
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  +10.101s
 5.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           +10.178s
 6.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               +19.807s
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  +35.015s
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  +35.354s
 9.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           +51.149s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia           +56.392s
11.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki    +57.420s
12.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         +1m05.430s
13.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        +1m12.364s
14.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m13.500s
15.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         +1m14.128s
16.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           +1m14.991s
17.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         +1m20.640s
18.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           +1m34.462s
19.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       +1m49.713s
20.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     +1m50.024s
21.  Martin Bauer      Remus Aprilia             +1 lap

Retirements:

     Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha             2 laps
     Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW            2 laps
     Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki       1 lap
     Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki       1 lap