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Barcelona MotoGP: Rossi defeats Marquez to win, Lorenzo taken out

Valentino Rossi beat MotoGP arch rival Marc Marquez to win a thrilling Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona

The pair spent the bulk of the race nose-to-tail and while Rossi emerged with his second victory of the season, Marquez now leads the championship after Jorge Lorenzo had a disastrous day.

Lorenzo got the jump off the line, but his race quickly unravelled.

Rossi dropped to eighth at start, but picked his way through and took the lead from Lorenzo down the inside at Turn 1 at the start of lap six.

Marquez moved past at Turn 5 on the same lap, while Dani Pedrosa and Maverick Vinales also moved past the struggling world champion over the following laps.

With 10 laps remaining, Lorenzo was 10 seconds behind Rossi, with Andrea Iannone closing on him quickly.

There was worse to come. Iannone overshot the run into Turn 10 and his Ducati tagged the rear of Lorenzo's Yamaha, taking both riders out of the race.

That put the focus back on the battle at the front between Rossi and Marquez.

The gap fluctuated between three and six tenths of a second, with Rossi unable to shake the Honda rider and leading by 0.248s with five laps remaining.

Marquez then made his move.

He snuck ahead briefly at Turn 10 later that lap, but Rossi recovered mid-corner and emerged with the lead.

Marquez breezed past the Yamaha down the front straight with four laps to go, but Rossi was able to hold on under braking into Turn 1.

A lap later, Marquez made a move stick, but Rossi was able to stay close enough to reclaim the lead at the same place on the penultimate tour.

Rossi edged away slightly over the course of the lap, before a mistake by Marquez at Turn 7 gave the Italian breathing space for the final lap.

His second win of the campaign is his first at Barcelona since 2009.

Rossi and Marquez's frosty relationship did not prevent them from shaking hands in parc ferme post-race.

Marquez now leads the championship with 125 points, 10 clear of Lorenzo, with Rossi a further 12 behind.

Pedrosa turned his first front-row starting position of the year into third place, with Vinales eventually finishing a distant fourth, the pair having fought it out in a lively battle before they caught and passed Lorenzo.

Pol Espargaro was the first satellite rider home in fifth for Tech3 Yamaha, one spot ahead of LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow and factory Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso.

Alvaro Bautista was a late mover for Aprilia, picking up several places in the closing laps to finish eighth.

The last man he passed was Danilo Petrucci, while Hector Barbera fell back from fourth on the grid to finish 10th.

After the race, Barbera was demoted one place for an illegal move at Turn 13 on the final lap, elevating Jack Miller to 10th, the Marc VDS Honda rider's best race result in MotoGP.

RESULTS - 25 LAPS:

Pos Rider Team Bike Gap
1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 44m37.589s
2 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 2.652s
3 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 6.313s
4 Maverick Vinales Suzuki Suzuki 24.388s
5 Pol Espargaro Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 29.546s
6 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 36.244s
7 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 41.464s
8 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia Aprilia 42.975s
9 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 45.337s
10 Jack Miller Marc VDS Honda Honda 49.514s
11 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati Ducati 46.669s
12 Stefan Bradl Aprilia Aprilia 55.133s
13 Eugene Laverty Aspar Ducati Ducati 57.974s
14 Tito Rabat Marc VDS Honda Honda 1m00.141s
15 Michele Pirro Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m00.429s
16 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m16.269s
17 Yonny Hernandez Aspar Ducati Ducati 1 Lap
- Aleix Espargaro Suzuki Suzuki Retirement
- Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Yamaha Retirement
- Andrea Iannone Ducati Ducati Retirement
- Bradley Smith Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha Retirement

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Pos Rider Points
1 Marc Marquez 125
2 Jorge Lorenzo 115
3 Valentino Rossi 103
4 Dani Pedrosa 82
5 Maverick Vinales 72
6 Pol Espargaro 59
7 Aleix Espargaro 49
8 Hector Barbera 48
9 Andrea Dovizioso 43
10 Andrea Iannone 41
11 Eugene Laverty 39
12 Bradley Smith 29
13 Stefan Bradl 29
14 Alvaro Bautista 29
15 Danilo Petrucci 24
16 Cal Crutchlow 20
17 Michele Pirro 19
18 Scott Redding 16
19 Tito Rabat 13
20 Jack Miller 8
21 Loris Baz 8
22 Yonny Hernandez 3


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