MotoGP Brno: Jorge Lorenzo takes dominant win over Marc Marquez

Jorge Lorenzo capped a dominant weekend at Brno with victory in the Czech MotoGP, drawing level with Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi in the riders' championship

MotoGP Brno: Jorge Lorenzo takes dominant win over Marc Marquez

With the pair and fellow championship contender Marc Marquez sharing the front row, hopes of a memorable battle didn't eventuate, with Lorenzo controlling the race from start to finish.

The polesitter got the best start and shook off early pressure from Marquez, edging further and further away from the Honda rider during the 22 laps to eventually win by more than four seconds.

With his fifth victory of the season, Lorenzo draws level with Rossi atop the standings, with reigning world champion Marquez 52 points behind them.

Rossi's chances were dashed off the line, dropping from third to fifth following a slow start.

By the time he was back in the top three, after passing Andrea Dovizioso on the second lap, Lorenzo and Marquez were more than two seconds up the road.

That grew to nearly eight seconds by the midway point of the race, and while the Italian ran at a similar pace to Marquez, he had settle for a lonely third.

Dovizioso led the Ducati battle early, but was passed by team-mate Andrea Iannone who took fourth.

In the closing laps, Dovizioso had to defend fifth heavily from Dani Pedrosa, who advanced from ninth on the grid, battling the left ankle injury he sustained in a practice crash on Friday.

In one of the race's few on-track fights, Pedrosa eventually got past the Ducati rider at Turn 8 on the final lap to take fifth.

Bradley Smith leapt into third place off the line, but faded to finish seventh, ahead of Tech 3 team-mate Pol Espargaro, Suzuki's Aleix Espargaro and Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci.

Maverick Vinales and Cal Crutchlow ran ninth and 10th for the bulk of the race, but both fell at Turn 11 in separate incidents.

RESULTS - 22 LAPS:

Pos Rider Team Bike Gap
1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Yamaha 42m53.042s
2 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 4.462s
3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 10.397s
4 Andrea Iannone Ducati Ducati 13.071s
5 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 15.650s
6 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 15.725s
7 Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 21.821s
8 Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 23.240s
9 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki Suzuki 43.784s
10 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Racing Ducati 45.261s
11 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing Ducati 49.973s
12 Scott Redding Marc VDS Honda 50.174s
13 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia Gresini Aprilia 54.437s
14 Stefan Bradl Aprilia Gresini Aprilia 54.624s
15 Loris Baz Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 1m00.316s
16 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing Ducati 1m01.595s
17 Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 1m02.388s
18 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing Ducati 1m05.944s
19 Jack Miller LCR Honda 1m11.407s
20 Claudio Corti Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 1m50.033s
21 Karel Abraham AB Motoracing Honda 2m02.655s
- Maverick Vinales Suzuki Suzuki Retirement
- Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Retirement
- Eugene Laverty Aspar Honda Retirement
- Alex de Angelis IodaRacing Project ART/Aprilia Retirement

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Rider Points
1 Jorge Lorenzo 211
2 Valentino Rossi 211
3 Marc Marquez 159
4 Andrea Iannone 142
5 Bradley Smith 106
6 Andrea Dovizioso 104
7 Dani Pedrosa 91
8 Pol Espargaro 81
9 Cal Crutchlow 74
10 Danilo Petrucci 63
11 Maverick Vinales 62
12 Aleix Espargaro 53
13 Yonny Hernandez 41
14 Scott Redding 37
15 Hector Barbera 20
16 Alvaro Bautista 16
17 Loris Baz 15
18 Jack Miller 12
19 Stefan Bradl 11
20 Michele Pirro 8
21 Nicky Hayden 8
22 Eugene Laverty 7
23 Hiroshi Aoyama 5
24 Mike Di Meglio 2
25 Alex de Angelis 1


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