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Spanish GP

2016 MotoGP Spanish GP

Spain
Apr 22, 2016 to Apr 24, 2016
Circuito de Jerez, ES
Live text
MotoGP Spanish GP

Jerez MotoGP - Race

Live Text

A special performance from a special rider. Brilliant, clinical, phenomenal.

This is it from us today, here is your report from the race, which was, to be honest, made somewhat anticlimactic by Rossi's sheer brilliance.

It's game on for the MotoGP title - and you'd be quite bold to bet against any of the three riders who stand on the podium today.

Thank you for your attention. Over and out.
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Rossi: "I think that this was the perfect weekend - we start to go fast from Friday morning and the bike in the race was fantastic.

"I had a good pace, good start, I felt good with the bike from the beginning so I can push, it was special to win like this."
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Marquez: "In the beginning I already see that the feeling was not the same like yesterday - I try and I nearly crash one, two, three times - so I said, okay, 16 points for the championship."
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Lorenzo: "Well, the pace from the beginning was not very fast, Rossi was a little bit faster.

"In the middle, I could keep the distance. And when I was catching him, the center of the tyre on the straight was spinning like I had a wet tyre. 80% of throttle on the straights, I lose a lot.

"I could win the race with quite a big margin."
The chant in the crowd, however, is "Marquez, Marquez, Marquez".
Rossi's celebrations are still going on here, his teammate looking like he very much wants him to hurry up.
It's his 100th premier class podium with Yamaha but he doesn't seem to care one bit.

Marquez looks positively happy with third, he doesn't appear to have expected more - and it really didn't look like more was possible.

Lorenzo, meanwhile, is a grump.

Rossi riding around with his legs hanging off the left side of his bike, stops to celebrate as Iannone comes up to congratulate him.
Finishing order:
1 Rossi
2 Lorenzo
3 Marquez
4 Pedrosa
5 A. Espargaro
6 Vinales
7 Iannone
8 P. Espargaro
9 Laverty
10 Barbera
11 Crutchlow
12 Smith
13 Baz
14 Bradl
15 Hernandez
16 Pirro
17 Miller
18 Rabat
19 Redding
Then it's Pedrosa, Aleix Espargaro, Vinales, Iannone, Pol Espargaro, Laverty and Barbera making up the top 10.
Marquez comes in third, seven seconds behind Rossi.
Lorenzo takes the flag for second, 2.3s back after a positively leisurely final lap for Rossi.
Chequered Flag
And that's it - he's done it!

A magnificent first win of the season for Rossi, his 87th of an incredible career at the pinnacle of Grand Prix motorcycle racing that stretches back to the start of the century.
Rossi starts the last lap of the Spanish Grand Prix with 4.2s in hand over Lorenzo.
Marquez update: He's almost five seconds back on Lorenzo as we start the penultimate lap.
Laverty still hanging on to ninth, proper effort. His MotoGP career looked as good as over last year, but he's stuck around and he's been very impressive this season.
Three to go for Rossi. Four seconds in his back pocket. What a race this has been for the 37-year-old.
Lorenzo looks to have decided to play it safe for the remaining laps. He'll be on course for four valuable points over points leader Marquez, though.

Only one rider lapping in the 1m40s at this point - Dani Pedrosa.

But he surely won't have enough time to worry Marquez.

Five laps to go in Spain, and Rossi, now with 3.3s on Lorenzo, is looking very much on course for his first win at this track since 2009 - incidentally, the year he last won the title...
Iannone has passed Pol Espargaro. Next up - Maverick Vinales, 10 seconds up the road.

Good luck with that.
Pedrosa forces a double take as he goes quickest of all in S1. Aleix Espargaro now a second adrift.
Lorenzo gave away another half a second that time, so that may be game over as far as the lead battle is concerned...
Iannone has caught Pol Espargaro, the Spaniard hanging on to P7 for now.
What a desperately difficult race this is for Scott Redding, three seconds off Rabat.

Redding likes the occasional expletive - and he'll probably be using a lot of them after this grand prix.
Seven laps to go, but Lorenzo lost two tenths that time - time he really can't afford to drop at this stage.

Rossi's lead back up to 2.251s.
Running order after 20 laps:
1 Rossi
2 Lorenzo
3 Marquez
4 Pedrosa
5 A. Espargaro
6 Vinales
7 P. Espargaro
8 Iannone
9 Laverty
10 Barbera
11 Crutchlow
12 Smith
13 Baz
14 Hernandez
15 Bradl
16 Pirro
17 Miller
18 Rabat
19 Redding
Marquez now lapping slower than Pedrosa, albeit with a nice cushion of 7s over the second Honda rider.
The gap is inching down, it looks like Lorenzo is particularly strong in the last sector.

But catching Rossi is one thing, passing him is quite another...
Marquez just can't keep up with the lead pair, he's 3.4s down and lapping almost a second slower.
Pedrosa appears to have weathered the Aleix Espargaro storm for now - and Vinales is still quite a ways away.
Both Yamaha riders are on the same tyres, so there's no question of one man having an advantage in that sense. The gap is down to 2.1s with nine to go...
Iannone now makes it past Laverty for P8.
Lorenzo is now closer to Rossi than Marquez is to Lorenzo, interestingly.
Stopwatch
Wow, Lorenzo has taken half a second off Rossi that time! Could this race have a sting in the tail yet?
It's pretty much level pegging between the Yamaha teammates now, and with 11 laps to go, Lorenzo needs to be lapping at least 0.3s up on Rossi to have any chance.
Iannone passes Barbera for P9.
Lorenzo lapped ever so slightly quicker than Rossi on that last lap, but the gap is still 2.8s.
Vinales, in P6, has not been closing on Aleix Espargaro so far- but he'll have a good shot at it now if his teammate starts getting held up by Pedrosa.
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