Barcelona MotoGP: Marquez wins, Lorenzo triggers pile-up

Lorenzo, who had charged from 10th on the grid to join the lead battle, fell at the sharp Turn 10 left-hander while trying to pass Maverick Vinales, taking down his compatriot, as well as Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi in the process.

Marquez overtook pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo off the line, but yielded to a fast-starting Dovizioso at Turn 1, and was soon also briefly overtaken by Vinales.

Having regained second place, the championship leader pressured Dovizioso, and snuck past the Ducati man on the second lap at Turn 10.

At that same corner, Lorenzo committed down the inside of Vinales for third place but hit the deck on corner entry.

His bike clattered into Dovizioso's rear, and the resulting crash removed both Vinales and Rossi – who had gone wide to avoid the pile-up - from the race.

The crash left Marquez on his own up front, and promoted Ducati's Danilo Petrucci to second place, the Italian unable to keep pace with the Honda man but managing to fend off both Suzuki's Alex Rins and Quartararo, who had been as low as ninth after the opening lap.

On the 10th lap, Rins launched his bike down the inside of Petrucci at Turn 1, briefly getting ahead but running wide on exit, allowing Petrucci to sweep around the outside of Turn 2.

The same sequence of events was repeated two laps later, and it was another two laps before Petrucci opened the door at the sweeping Turn 4 right-hander and allowed Rins to barge past.

But Petrucci then slipstreamed back ahead of Rins at Turn 1 on lap 17, and when the Spaniard tried another Turn 1 move next time by, he came in too hot, just avoided collecting Petrucci and nearly highsided off his GSX-RR, tumbling down the order.

Thus had unsettled Petrucci enough to allow Quartararo to get past just a few corners later with a move at Turn 4, but by that point Marquez was already more than five seconds clear.

The Honda man eased off for the final laps, taking the chequered flag 2.7s ahead of Quartararo, who celebrated his and his Petronas Yamaha team's first podium in MotoGP.

Rins recovered to fourth, passing the fading Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller on the final lap, with Miller keeping the other Suzuki of Joan Mir at bay at the line.

Pol Espargaro was the lead KTM in seventh, while his works teammate Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10, the pair split by LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat.

Aprilia's Andrea Iannone, Tech 3 KTM's Miguel Oliveira and Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli completed the list of 13 finishers.

Nakagami's LCR teammate Cal Crutchlow crashed out after a failed overtaking attempt on Miller with six laps to go, falling off in the gravel at Turn 4.

Italian riders Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) also crashed, as did Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) on the opening lap – which also saw Hafizh Syahrin (Tech 3 KTM) retire.

The two Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro and tester Bradley Smith were too among the retirements, seemingly coming together in a big opening-lap crash.

Marquez leaves Barcelona with a 37-point lead over Dovizioso, with Rins and Petrucci a further two and five points behind the Ducati man respectively.

Race results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	24
2	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	24	2.660
3	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	24	4.537
4	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	24	6.602
5	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	24	6.870
6	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	24	7.040
7	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	24	16.144
8	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	24	17.969
9	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	24	22.661
10	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	24	26.228
11	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	24	32.036
12	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	24	44.666
13	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	24	51.363
	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	18
	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	16
	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	5
	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	3
	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	2
	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	2
	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1
	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	1
	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1
	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati
	38	Bradley Smith	Aprilia
View full results