Catalunya MotoGP: Rossi beats Marquez, Lorenzo on the floor

Rossi and Marquez fought it out for victory in the closing stages of a thrilling 25-lap contest, having pulled well clear of third-place man Dani Pedrosa.

After early leader Lorenzo faded, Marquez shadowed his arch-rival Rossi for much of the distance, making his first passing attempt with five laps to go.

The Honda rider grabbed the lead at Turn 1 two laps later, but Rossi quickly responded by replicating the move at the start of the penultimate tour.

An error from Marquez several corners later effectively ended the contest, as Rossi reeled off the remaining lap-and-a-half to take his second win of the year by 2.652s.

It was Rossi's 88th MotoGP win (and the 114th of his Grand Prix career), as well as his first win at Barcelona since 2009.

Behind the lead duo, it was a quiet race for Pedrosa, who settled into third early on behind Lorenzo and Marquez before Rossi began his climb from eighth place on the opening lap to the lead.

Slipping to fourth behind a charging Rossi, Pedrosa was soon back into third as Lorenzo's pace began to slow dramatically, the Spaniard falling victim to Rossi in the lead battle on Lap 7.

After Repsol Honda duo Marquez and Pedrosa found a way by, Lorenzo was shuffled back to fifth by an aggressive Maverick Vinales.

The Suzuki rider briefly threatened Pedrosa for third but couldn't sustain his rival's rhythm, ending up 18 seconds adrift by the finish in fourth place.

Lorenzo fumes after Iannone crash

Once Vinales had passed, it was Iannone's turn to go on the attack against Lorenzo, but the Italian clattered into the back of the reigning champion's Yamaha in a wild lunge at Turn 10.

It left both riders on the floor and Lorenzo irate with the man he replaces at Ducati in 2017, Iannone immediately being placed under investigation.

Their demise paved the way for Pol Espargaro's Tech 3 Yamaha to come fifth, ahead of Cal Crutchlow's LCR Honda and the surviving works Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso.

Alvaro Bautista took his best result yet for Aprilia in eighth, ahead of Danilo Petrucci on the best of the Pramac Ducatis and Jack Miller's Marc VDS Honda, who profited from Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) being docked a position.

Lorenzo's failure to score means Marquez now leads the championship by 10 points from Lorenzo, with Rossi now only 22 off the lead in third place.

The only other non-finishers of the race besides Lorenzo and Iannone were Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) and Bradley Smith (Tech 3), both of whom pulled into the pits with apparent mechanical trouble.

Race results:

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha YZR-M1	44:37.589
2	Marc Marquez	Honda RC213V	+2.652
3	Dani Pedrosa	Honda RC213V	+6.313
4	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki GSX-RR	+24.388
5	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha YZR-M1	+29.546
6	Cal Crutchlow	Honda RC213V	+36.244
7	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Desmosedici GP16	+41.464
8	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia RS-GP	+42.975
9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	+45.337
10	Hector Barbera	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	+46.669
11	Jack Miller	Honda RC213V	+49.514
12	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia RS-GP	+55.133
13	Eugene Laverty	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	+57.974
14	Tito Rabat	Honda RC213V	+1:00.141
15	Michele Pirro	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	+1:00.429
16	Scott Redding	Ducati Desmosedici GP15	+1:16.269
17	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati Desmosedici GP14	+1 lap
R	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki GSX-RR
R	Andrea Iannone	Ducati Desmosedici GP16
R	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha YZR-M1
R	Bradley Smith	Yamaha YZR-M1