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Phillip Island MotoGP: Valentino Rossi wins, Marc Marquez crashes

Valentino Rossi claimed victory in his 250th premier class race as he won MotoGP's Australian Grand Prix after Marc Marquez crashed out of the lead

Marquez had taken charge of the Phillip Island event from pole and was four seconds clear of the field when he lost the front end of his Honda, which was running Bridgestone's new asymmetric tyre, under braking for the Turn 10 hairpin with nine laps to go.

By that time, Rossi had finally won a huge battle for what had been second place with his Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

Rossi burst through from eighth on the grid to start chasing Lorenzo, who had managed to stay within a second of Marquez early on before his pace faded.

The two Yamahas swapped position repeatedly in the middle of the race, but Rossi successfully moved clear of Lorenzo by the time Marquez's error handed him the lead.

Lorenzo's lap times continued to get slower as his tyre grip vanished and he was caught and passed by Cal Crutchlow's Ducati.

The second-place qualifier had dropped to eighth on the first lap, then carved his way back through the field to reclaim second.

But Crutchlow then crashed out on the final lap of the race, allowing Lorenzo to complete a Yamaha one-two after all.

Crutchlow's fall gave a maiden podium position to fellow Briton Bradley Smith, who was stunned to find himself in the top three for the first time in MotoGP, giving Yamaha a podium sweep.

Smith had run third for a while after an assertive first lap, then became embroiled in a huge group of bikes battling for top six places.

Several crashes split this pack - first when Andrea Iannone ran into the back of Dani Pedrosa, taking himself out instantly and damaging Pedrosa's Honda sufficiently to force it out.

Stefan Bradl then triggered a near-identical incident with Aleix Espargaro, with Espargaro smashing his Forward Yamaha's screen in frustration as he parked.

With Pol Espargaro crashing from this group by himself late on, Smith and Andrea Dovizioso were the only ones still standing in what became third and fourth.

That spate of crashes allowed Hector Barbera to emerge with an amazing fifth on Avintia's recently-acquired Ducati, narrowly squeezing ahead of Gresini pair Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding in a photo finish at the line.

RESULTS - 27 LAPS:

Pos Rider Team Bike Gap
1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 40m46.405s
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Yamaha 10.836s
3 Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 12.294s
4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 14.893s
5 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing Ducati 30.089s
6 Alvaro Bautista Gresini Racing Honda 30.154s
7 Scott Redding Gresini Racing Honda 30.158s
8 Hiroshi Aoyama Aspar Honda 33.166s
9 Alex de Angelis Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 33.577s
10 Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 34.144s
11 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing Ducati 39.468s
12 Danilo Petrucci IodaRacing Project ART/Aprilia 56.684s
13 Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport PBM/Aprilia 1m12.813s
14 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing Avintia/Kawasaki 1m28.050s
- Cal Crutchlow Ducati Ducati Retirement
- Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha Retirement
- Aleix Espargaro Forward Racing Forward Yamaha Retirement
- Stefan Bradl LCR Honda Retirement
- Marc Marquez Honda Honda Retirement
- Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport PBM/Aprilia Retirement
- Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda Retirement
- Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing Ducati Retirement
- Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing Honda Retirement

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER 16 OF 18 ROUNDS:

Pos Rider Points
1 Marc Marquez 312
2 Valentino Rossi 255
3 Jorge Lorenzo 247
4 Dani Pedrosa 230
5 Andrea Dovizioso 166
6 Aleix Espargaro 117
7 Pol Espargaro 116
8 Bradley Smith 108
9 Andrea Iannone 102
10 Stefan Bradl 96
11 Alvaro Bautista 89
12 Scott Redding 69
13 Cal Crutchlow 63
14 Hiroshi Aoyama 62
15 Nicky Hayden 44
16 Yonny Hernandez 44
17 Karel Abraham 33
18 Hector Barbera 14
19 Alex de Angelis 14
20 Danilo Petrucci 13
21 Colin Edwards 11
22 Michele Pirro 11
23 Broc Parkes 7
24 Mike Di Meglio 6
25 Michael Laverty 5
26 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 4
27 Leon Camier 1


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