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General

MotoGP's Valencia finale

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Rossi is getting a bit of peace in second as Iannone and Marquez scuffle, with Vinales and Dovizioso still in the thick of the podium fight too.
Marquez tries again, gets third back, then they hit the straight and the Ducati storms back ahead again. Iannone might miss all that horsepower at Suzuki next year.
Marquez now sneaks past Iannone for third - which he holds for one straight before Iannone storms back inside again.
All this fun in the battle for second has allowed Lorenzo to stride off into a 4s lead by one-third distance.
And then Rossi is back past again at Turn 4.
Rossi made that move stick at Turn 6. This time he holds off Iannone down the main straight and does not overshoot Turn 1. But Iannone gets him on the run to Turn 2.
Rossi is past Iannone again, for a third time, and into second place.
The answer is yes. Make that 'was' yes, as Rossi overshoots braking at Turn 1 and lets Iannone back past again.
Rossi has snuck past Iannone again, can he hold on down the front straight this time?
Lorenzo is now 2.641s clear at the front of the field, lapping quickly while Iannone and Rossi are now fighting.
But Iannone uses the potent engine power of that Ducati to re-pass Rossi down the front straight.
Rossi has caught and passed Iannone, he's up into second.
Pedrosa fell from his Honda at Turn 2. He was seventh, behind Dovizioso.
Crash
Pedrosa has crashed out of the race.
Rossi is half-a-second behind Iannone, now that he's passed Vinales.
Stopwatch
Meanwhile leader Lorenzo trims another 0.008s off the lap record he's established a minute ago as he does a 1m31.171s and pulls 1.5s clear of pursuer Iannone.
Now Rossi finally makes it through on Vinales for third, and Marquez quickly follows him through.
Yonny Hernandez has crashed out of his final MotoGP start before returning to Moto2 next year, at Turn 8.
Marquez takes a bit of a look at Rossi while the Italian's focused on Vinales. No change of position yet.
Not an easy place for overtaking, and Rossi is struggling to find any daylight to get around Vinales for third. They've got Marquez right behind them and Dovizioso is edging closer too.
Kallio is still 20th on the KTM, ahead of Hernandez and Rabat.
A curious timing glitch keeps sending Rossi tumbling down the order - don't be fooled if that's happening on your screen, he's still firmly fourth behind his 2017 team-mate Vinales.
Iannone has Vinales, Rossi and Marquez quite close to his tail for second now.
Stopwatch
Lorenzo is starting to make a break now, his lead over Iannone up to nearly a second as he bangs in a new lap record of 1m31.179s.
Pedrosa is losing ground, he was repassed by Marquez as lap one ended and then Dovizioso went down the inside of him into Turn 1 to take sixth.
Lorenzo leads Iannone, Vinales, Rossi, Marquez, Pedrosa, Dovizioso, Pol Espargaro, Aleix Espargaro and Crutchlow as they complete lap one.
Leader Lorenzo is getting a lot of hassle from the man he's replacing at Ducati next year - Iannone is stalking the Yamaha.
Caught a glimpse of Marquez's Honda pulling a pretty serious wheelie away from the line.
Marquez is down to sixth behind Rossi and Pedrosa.
But it's Iannone and Vinales who emerge second and third after Turn 1, having braked latest into the corner.
Lights green
Lorenzo holds the lead as Rossi makes a great start and storms past a slow-away Marquez.
Tyres - all 22 riders are on the soft rear tyre. Most of the riders are on the medium front. Pedrosa, Crutchlow, Miller and Laverty have opted for the hard compound. Within the fronts, we have an even split between the regular construction and a new construction - based on the 2017 casing - brought here by Michelin this weekend.
Riders are away on the formation lap.
Or will we have another new winner, to take it to 10 for the season? That appears unlikely, Pol Espargaro will start sixth, as the best of the winless riders, then it's his brother Aleix in ninth on the Suzuki.
Unlike this time last year, we don't have a title on the line, Marc Marquez sealed that at Motegi last month. In the Moto3 and Moto2 races we've already seen today, champions Brad Binder and Johann Zarco signed off with classy victories. Can Marquez make it a hat-trick?

By: Mitchell Adam

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