Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez saw the last hopes of retaining his title go up in smoke when he crashed out of today’s Catalunya MotoGP trying to keep Jorge Lorenzo in his sights.
Marquez binned it on lap three when he ran in too hot and bounced into the kitty litter, just avoided the rear wheel of eventual winner Lorenzo who took his fourth win in a row and closed the gap to second-placed man Valentino Rossi to one point in the title stakes.
Lorenzo was again metronomic in his laps but after Rossi got through the traffic and could lap as he pleased, The Doctor closed down Lorenzo by the smallest of margins every lap as the pair stayed in the high 1’42s, one second quicker than Dani Pedrosa in second place.
After Marquez departed the race, Lorenzo gradually pulled a gap of just more than two seconds as Rossi fought his way past Pol Espargaro, Bradley Smith, Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso to try and get on Lorenzo’s rear wheel.
Lorenzo saw his lead cut from 1.7s on lap six to 1.5s on lap seven as Rossi, who said he would have good pace, started to get his own hammer down. It took time, though, and Rossi only pulled it to less than 1.5s with seven to go.
With five laps left, Rossi had it down to 1.314s and two laps later it was 1.186. On the last lap, Lorenzo knocked it off slightly and he crossed the line with a 0.885s lead. It is the first time in his career he has won four on the bounce.
Rossi said after the race that he and Lorenzo were equally matched in terms of pace but he lost 1.5s off the start as he tried to get through traffic.
Pedrosa had a lonely race at the end for his first podium of the year while Andrea Iannone was gifted fourth place when Aleix Espargaro crashed out, losing the front at turn five with five laps to go.
Britain’s Bradley Smith took fifth place and is one point behind Marquez in the title chase, with Maverick Vinales, on the remaining Suzuki in sixth. Scott Redding took seventh place with Stefan Bradl the leading Open class man in eighth. Danilo Petrucci and Alvaro Bautista completed the top ten as Eugene Laverty picked up another four points for his best finish so far in 12th place.
Cal Crutchlow went down in lap one after being pushed wide by Aleix Espargaro and slowly digging into the gravel trap. He re-mounted but retired while both Andrea Dovizioso and Pol Espargaro had front-end crashes.
