Malaysia MotoGP: Andrea Dovizioso secures second top-class victory

Polesitter Dovizioso was in the lead pack throughout the race at Sepang, which was delayed by 20 minutes and reduced by one lap to 19 due to heavy rain, adding to his 2009 British Grand Prix success with Honda.

Jorge Lorenzo took the lead off the line, but it only lasted until Turn 5, and he was ultimately bundled back down to fifth over the remainder of the lap.

Dovizioso led briefly on that first tour, but was passed by Valentino Rossi at Turn 15, who only led until Andrea Iannone took the lead at Turn 12 on lap two.

In a tight top three between the Ducatis, Rossi looked up the inside of Iannone at Turn 4 and Turn 9 on lap 5, but Iannone emerged ahead both times.

With a cleaner move into Turn 1 on the sixth lap, Rossi claimed the lead but he could not pull away on his Yamaha, with Iannone moving back into top spot at Turn 15.

From there, it was status quo mid-race at the front, the top trio split by about half-a-second, followed by world champion Marc Marquez and LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow.

Rossi ended that with a move on Iannone at Turn 9 on lap 11, which signalled the start of a dramatic chain of events.

Over the course of two laps, LCR Honda's Crutchlow fell from fifth at Turn 2, Marquez went down at Turn 11 and Iannone was passed by Dovizioso and then crashed out of contention at Turn 9.

That left Rossi and Dovizioso alone at the front with six laps to go, split by 0.159s.

However Rossi ran wide at Turn 1 on the following lap and Dovizioso snuck past, moving into a lead he would not relinquish.

As Rossi's pace dropped with front-tyre concerns, Dovizioso pulled away to win by 3.115 seconds.

Second place was enough for Rossi to secure second in the 2016 championship over his team-mate Lorenzo, who initially hung on behind the lead pack.

However, while Lorenzo fell away, he benefited from the crashes ahead to finish third, 8.809s behind Rossi.

Avintia Ducati's Hector Barbera claimed a career-best result of fourth, getting ahead of team-mate Loris Baz in the closing laps.

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales struggled in the rain and finished sixth, while Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista, Marc VDS Honda's Jack Miller, Tech3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaro and Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci completed the top 10.

Marquez was able to get back on his Honda, after his second race crash in seven days, and picked his way back up the order to finish 11th.

RESULTS - 19 LAPS:

Pos	Rider	Team	Gap
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	42m27.333s
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	3.115s
3	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	11.924s
4	Hector Barbera	Avintia Ducati	19.916s
5	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	21.353s
6	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	22.932s
7	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	25.829s
8	Jack Miller	Marc VDS Honda	32.746s
9	Pol Espargaro	Tech3 Yamaha	33.704s
10	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	34.280s
11	Marc Marquez	Honda	36.480s
12	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Ducati	36.638s
13	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	36.897s
14	Bradley Smith	Tech3 Yamaha	45.609s
15	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	49.779s
16	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	52.665s
17	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	52.784s
18	Tito Rabat	Marc VDS Honda	54.891s
-	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	Retirement
-	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Retirement
-	Yonny Hernandez	Aspar Ducati	Retirement

RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP:

Pos	Rider	Points
1	Marc Marquez	278
2	Valentino Rossi	236
3	Jorge Lorenzo	208
4	Maverick Vinales	191
5	Andrea Dovizioso	162
6	Dani Pedrosa	155
7	Cal Crutchlow	141
8	Pol Espargaro	124
9	Hector Barbera	97
10	Andrea Iannone	96
11	Aleix Espargaro	85
12	Eugene Laverty	77
13	Alvaro Bautista	76
14	Scott Redding	72
15	Danilo Petrucci	71
16	Stefan Bradl	60
17	Jack Miller	56
18	Bradley Smith	55
19	Michele Pirro	36
20	Loris Baz	35
21	Tito Rabat	29
22	Yonny Hernandez	20
23	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	5
24	Alex Lowes	3
25	Hiroshi Aoyama	1
26	Nicky Hayden	1
27	Mike Jones	1