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MotoGP: Rossi defeats Marquez in Catalunya

Andries van der WaltComments Off on MotoGP: Rossi defeats Marquez in Catalunya
Valentino Rossi has won the Catalunya MotoGP after defeating arch-rival Marc Marquez in a late race battle. The Italian fought back from a bad start, which left him eighth after Turn 1, to take the lead from Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on lap 7 of 25.
valentino rossi

Rossi and Marquez then pulled away while Lorenzo faded through the field to fifth – then was punted off by Andrea Iannone when the pair spectacularly clashed under braking at the end of the back straight on lap 17.

The closing stages saw Rossi and Marquez battle head-to-head for victory for the first time since their infamous 2015 clashes, The Doctor making his winning pass into Turn 1 at the start of the penultimate lap.

Marquez’s hopes ended when he ran slightly wide at Turn 7. The final lap began with the pair separated by 0.7s, after which Rossi remained mistake free to the chequered flag for his second win of the season.

Repsol Honda’s Marquez was satisfied to regain the world championship lead, and reversed his number 93 on the slowdown lap in tribute to Moto2 star Luis Salom, who lost his life at the circuit on Friday.

Fittingly, given the atmosphere following Salom’s tragic accident, Rossi and Marquez shook hands for the first time since their Sepang clash. The pair, plus third-place finisher Dani Pedrosa, then wore t-shits in tribute to Salom for the podium ceremony, which was without champagne.

Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was six-seconds from victory, but able to break free from an early battle with Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales. Vinales had an exciting first half of the grand prix, repeatedly swapping places with Pedrosa and then Lorenzo.

Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) led the satellite challenge in fifth and sixth, easily Crutchlow’s best result of the season, with Andrea Dovizioso the top Ducati in seventh after Iannone’s dramatic exit.

Alvaro Bautista put the Aprilia into an encouraging eighth place, with Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) and Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) completing the top ten.

Joining Lorenzo and Iannone on the DNF list were Bradley Smith (Tech 3) and Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki), who both pitted.

Marquez now holds a 10-point lead over Lorenzo and 22-point advantage over Rossi heading into Assen at the end of the month.

Catalan MotoGP:
1. Valentino Rossi
2. Marc Marquez
3. Dani Pedrosa
4. Maverick Viñales
5. Pol Espargaro
6. Cal Crutchlow
7. Andrea Dovizioso
8. Alvaro Bautista
9. Danilo Petrucci
10. Hector Barbera
11. Jack Miller
12. Stefan Bradl
13. Eugene Laverty
14. Tito Rabat
15. Michele Pirro
16. Scott Redding
17. Yonny Hernandez