Valentino Rossi wins ahead of Marc Márquez, Jorge Lorenzo crashes
Valentino Rossi won the MotoGP race after pulling away from Marc Márquez in the final laps. Dani Pedrosa, Maverick Viñales and Pol Espargaró finished behind them. Márquez is the new championship leader and benefits from Jorge Lorenzo's zero, after he was taken out by Andrea Iannone and both ended up on the ground.
The Saturday racing session at the Catalunya GP closed with the MotoGP category, where the win went to Valentino Rossi. The Italian rider beat Marc Márquez in a fine battle that, by the way, ended with a handshake between the two before the podium, a gesture that hadn’t been seen in a long time.
Márquez could not hold off Rossi over the last three laps and also decided not to take a risk, because he had seen on the pit board that Jorge Lorenzo was out after being taken out by Andrea Iannone. Dani Pedrosa completed the podium, where all the riders wore the shirt in memory of Luis Salom. Maverick Viñales and Pol Espargaró finished 4th and 5th.
Jorge Lorenzo got a good start in Montmeló, but the lead did not last long, as by the sixth lap he was already in fourth place. Rossi kept gaining positions with fast laps, while Márquez and Pedrosa also passed Lorenzo, who was later overtaken by Viñales.
Things were not going well at all for Lorenzo, but they went completely wrong on lap 17, when Andrea Iannone entered corner 10 much too deep and took him out, and both ended up on the ground. That closed a very difficult weekend for the Mallorcan, who was not very happy with all the changes made to the track to avoid passing through the corner where Salom’s accident happened.
Lorenzo being out influenced the fight for the win. Rossi led the race for quite a few laps, but Márquez attacked him and they had a beautiful duel with successive overtakes in the last third of the race. With 3 laps to go, the Italian regained the lead under braking after the finish straight and pulled away, helped by a mistake from Márquez, who went too wide in one of the corners. The Spaniard had tyre problems and knew Lorenzo was out, so he was cautious and secured second place.
Behind them, three more Spaniards finished thanks to Pedrosa, Viñales and Pol Espargaró. Álvaro Bautista was 8th, Héctor Barberá 10th and Tito Rabat 14th. With these results the championship is tightening, as Marc Márquez is the new leader with 125 points, but Lorenzo has 115, Rossi 103, Pedrosa 81 and Viñales 72 points.
This was the final classification:
Photo and classification | MotoGP
