125cc: Marquez dominates at Barcelona

The 17-year-old Spaniard made a clean getaway on his Ajo Derbi, and after briefly losing the lead at the first corner to Bradley Smith, re-took the position and was able to run and hide for the rest of the afternoon, eventually winning by 4.6 seconds.

Marquez's result means he now has a one-point lead in the championship over Pol Espargaro, and also made him the first man since Youichi Ui nine years ago to win four 125cc grands prix in a row.

The battle for second place was the highlight of the race, and featured the Aspar Aprilias of Nico Terol and Bradley Smith and Espargaro's Tuenti Derbi.

The trio swapped places on virtually every lap, all three usually utilising the braking zone for Turn 1 to complete their moves.

Things got a bit crazy on the final lap though. First erstwhile championship leader Terol slipstreamed by his team-mate on the start/finish straight, who then also lost third under braking to Espargaro. Once Espargaro had passed Terol two corners later, the latter tried unsuccessfully to re-pass his title rival, allowing Smith back past.

The British rider then blasted by into second at the La Caixa hairpin with just three corners of the race remaining. In a desperate attempt to rescue a podium finish for himself, Terol applied the power too early exiting the corner and slid into the gravel and out of the race, reducing the battle to two.

Smith beat Espargaro over the line to secure his best result of 2010 while some 40s further back Sandro Cortese edged his Ajo Derbi inside Efren Vazquez's Tuenti-run example to grab fourth right at the death. It was the German's best result of the year.

Tomoyoshi Koyama (Team Germany Aprilia) headed a five-bike scramble for sixth, he, Randy Krummenacher (Arie Molenaar Aprilia), Johann Zaro (WTR Aprilia), and Jonas Folger (Ongetta Aprilia) all separated by just over a tenth of a second.

Britain's Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol Aprilia), who started 16th, had a good race and completed the top 10 while expected top-six runner Esteve Rabat (Blusens Aprilia) crashed at La Caixa on the opening lap.

Pos  Rider                Bike          Time/Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez         Derbi       40m46.315s
 2.  Bradley Smith        Aprilia       + 4.638s
 3.  Pol Espargaro        Derbi         + 4.996s
 4.  Sandro Cortese       Derbi        + 45.366s
 5.  Efren Vazquez        Derbi        + 45.433s
 6.  Tomoyoshi Koyama     Aprilia      + 49.685s
 7.  Randy Krummenacher   Aprilia      + 49.735s
 8.  Johann Zarco         Aprilia      + 49.743s
 9.  Jonas Folger         Aprilia      + 49.775s
10.  Danny Webb           Aprilia      + 53.115s
11.  Adrian Martin        Aprilia      + 58.669s
12.  Simone Grotzkyj      Aprilia      + 58.800s
13.  Alberto Moncayo      Aprilia    + 1m02.050s
14.  Marcel Schrotter     Honda      + 1m15.497s
15.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Aprilia    + 1m16.029s
16.  Jakub Kornfeil       Aprilia    + 1m26.441s
17.  Louis Rossi          Aprilia    + 1m33.613s
18.  Luca Marconi         Aprilia    + 1m36.186s
19.  Joan Perello         Honda      + 1m36.223s
20.  Michael Van Der      Lambretta  + 1m36.340s
21.  Johnny Rosell        Honda      + 1m43.804s
22.  Marco Ravaioli       Lambretta  + 1m55.331s
23.  Peter Sebestyen      Aprilia        + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Nicolas Terol        Aprilia    21 laps
     Luis Salom           Aprilia    14 laps
     Eduard Lopez         Aprilia    11 laps
     Isaac Vinales        Aprilia    10 laps
     Sturla Fagerhaug     Aprilia    7 laps
     Alexis Masbou        Aprilia    5 laps
     Esteve Rabat         Aprilia    0 laps
     Jasper Iwema         Aprilia    0 laps
     Lorenzo Savadori     Aprilia    0 laps