Tag: MotoGP

  • Vinales Steals MotoGP Season Opener From Zarco, Dovizioso

    Vinales Steals MotoGP Season Opener From Zarco, Dovizioso

    In his first race as a member of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, Maverick Vinales captured the season-opening win in Qatar on Sunday in dramatic fashion.

    The mounting pressure of an almost too comfortable lead in his first premier class race proved too much for rookie Johann Zarco, who lost his bike to a heartbreaking lowside after leading the first half of the race .

    Weekend favorite and preseason test dominator Vinales capitalized on the Frenchman’s disappointment and turned the race into a two-bike duel between his Yamaha 2017 M1 and Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati Desmosedici GP17.

    While the final laps were ripe with overtakes for the lead and a drag races on the frontstretch, Vinales finished a half second over Dovizioso and nearly two seconds over third place, teammate Valentino Rossi.

    Repsol Honda teammate’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa finished fourth and fifth, respectively, over six seconds back from Vinales.

    The Qatar GP also saw the best finish in the sport for Aprilia with Aleix Espargaro’s sixth place showing, the top from an independent team.

    Octo Pramac’s Scott Redding put in an impressive seventh place effort, stunted from the start by Zarco, whose sweeping move to the inside of the frontstretch killed the British rider’s holeshot aboard his Ducati GP16.

    Australian Jack Miller finished 14 seconds back in eighth, matching his third best career finish, only better in last year’s maiden victory at Assen and seventh place showing at Sachsenring.

    Top rookie honors went to Alex Rins, who gathered Suzuki Ecstar’s only seven points after teammate Andrea Iannone wrecked early on.

    Zarco’s fellow first-year teammate Jonas Folger gathered six championship points for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 with a tenth place finish.

    New to Ducati Team, Jorge Lorenzo finished 11th after running off track early on.

    Just outside of points positions was the new KTM team of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith in 16th and 17th, respectively.

  • Suzuki Podium Is Much-Needed Leverage in Factory Fight for Vinales

    Suzuki Podium Is Much-Needed Leverage in Factory Fight for Vinales

    Blue track suits dominated the podium at Le Mans on Sunday, but a lighter shade than usual was present in the form of Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Vinales. His first premier class podium, a possible instance of foreshadowing showed the 21-year-old next to the dark blue suits of the Movistar Yamaha team where he may end up next season.

    Suzuki’s first podium since 2008 and a career benchmark for the second year rider, he downplayed the implications of his high finish as it relates to his upcoming decision to remain at Suzuki or take an offer from Yamaha.

    “The decision is gonna be really difficult but every day is more clear and finally as soon as possible I will make it,” said Vinales. “For sure, I will make the decision soon. I don’t need to think [the decision] is whether I made a podium or not.”

    If Vinales has already settled on Yamaha and is just waiting to make it official, then the podium won’t have much effect, but if he is still considering Suzuki then it would be difficult to imagine the factory’s best finish in nearly a decade won’t provide some pull in attaining the Spaniard.

    Team Suzuki Ecstar knows this well, and in an interview with Motorsport.com, Suzuki boss Davide Brivio made it clear that improvements set for early in the season could help keep Vinales on board.

    “That task began last summer when we explained our development programme for the bike,” Brivio said. “We knew that in the first three or four races 2016, Maverick would decide his future, so we had to take a step forward, and we have done that.”

    Brivio said Vinales will choose teams sometime between Le Mans and Mugello because Yamaha does not want to wait too long.

    An Improving Team in 2016

    With just five races to make an impact this season, Suzuki has done just that.

    Vinales and teammate Aleix Espargaro have finished inside the top six the last three races in a row. Currently fifth in the World Standings, Vinales only finished worse than sixth place at Argentina, where he crashed. Espargaro’s worst finish this year is 11th, and he sits seventh in the standings.

    Vinales has already gathered over half of his total points from last year less than a third of the way through this season (49 points through five of 18 races), which is more a comment on this season’s huge success than any failure last season. In his 97-point rookie year in the premier class, he gathered points in every race except Brno and Motegi, both of which ended in crashes.

    Last year at Le Mans, Espargaro failed to finish and Vinales came in the ninth spot. Improvements this year are undoubtedly due in big part to rider performance, but it goes without saying that Suzuki is providing better bikes. Vinales and Espargaro combined have finished every race this year but one. Among those nine races completed, they average a finishing position of 6.2.

    Is It Enough To Keep Vinales Around?

    Vinales voiced concern over his inability to maintain pace with the leaders during qualifying at Le Mans, claiming that rear tire sliding caused him to fall nearly a second off Jorge Lorenzo’s pole time.

    “For me it’s always the same problem. I always say, also last year, that we need to improve the rear,” Vinales said. “The problem is, when I need to use the rear to turn, the bike doesn’t turn and it starts to slide. It’s one year that I say the same and I still have the same problem.”

    The Suzuki optimist could see Vinales’ concern as a sign that he is invested in the team and wants better performance going forward. More likely, his interest in Suzuki’s performance pertains to the remainder of the season ahead. With an offer from the top team in the world dangling in front of him and the bad taste of recent dissatisfaction with Suzuki performance in his mouth, several signs point to a move. It doesn’t help Suzuki’s chances that Vinales’ third spot on the podium was bested only by the two riders from the team that is trying to sign him.

    Brivio thinks an underdog Suzuki narrative could provide leverage against Yamaha in the fight for Vinales.

    “Maverick can become a legend if he wins with Suzuki, because at Yamaha everybody expects him to do it,” Brivio said. “In any case, that is up to him, and maybe he doesn’t care at all. Maybe he only wants to win and that’s it.”

    Vinales must decide which team offers the best residence to fulfill expectations regarding his being the next big thing. Yamaha has the track record. But Suzuki is making reasonable arguments, which is keeping things interesting.

    “If he stays at Suzuki and we win, the story will be very inspiring because we started from scratch together,” Brivio said. “He arrived at Suzuki new to MotoGP, and we were also new as a team. From a sporting point of view it would be very inspiring.”

    Vinales has a lot to think about: The future of his career. The future of the sport. The potentially history making intersection of those separate-but-bound unwritten narratives.

    The French GP could only have made his decision more difficult. With a contract offer from the reigning champions, he just made recent history with an underdog team that is very much on the rise. Just how high that team can rise is the question he must answer.

  • Marquez Continues Dominant Ways at COTA

    Marquez Continues Dominant Ways at COTA

    Marc Marquez, winner of all three MotoGP races at Circuit of the Americas since it’s inaugural season in 2013, opened the track’s 2016 weekend with a sweep of Friday’s free practices.

    The two-time champion bested reigning champ Jorge Lorenzo by a quarter second in Free Practice #1, then shaved almost a second off his time in Free Practice #2.

    The competition was unable to keep up, with second overall Andrea Iannone trailing Repsol Honda’s Marquez by .7 seconds, despite improving his own FP1 time by three quarters of a second. The Ducati Corse rider undoubtedly aims to improve performance and ease tensions after losing control of his bike and taking out teammate Andrea Dovizioso in the final turn of last weekend’s grand Prix in Argentina. He was penalized for the incident.

    Despite taking the top spot in both of Friday’s free practice segments, Marquez’s time of 2’04.034 is still nearly two seconds off the track record he set last year.

    FP2 saw second-year GP rider Maverick Vinales pilot his Suzuki to the third spot overall, with a time of 2’04.895.

    Octo Pramac’s Scott Redding overcame gastrointestinal illness and was the top satellite rider overall, placing 6th and 4th in the free practices, respectively. Redding also experienced serious flight delays from Argentina, arriving two days late after multiple flights and “a few bus rides of seven or eight hours.”

    Possibly the biggest surprise of the day was Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera placing fourth in FP1, and his teammate Loris Baz capturing the seventh spot overall.

     

     

  • Ducati Among The Best At Sepang

    Ducati Among The Best At Sepang

    Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso chose not to wait for Ducati Team’s 2015 bike debut to clock fast times this week, securing a position in the top four time slots each day in Malaysia.

    At this week’s Sepang test, Ducati focused primarily on gathering data for the forthcoming Desmosedici GP15, but in the meantime managed to record multiple lap times that placed it consistently among MotoGP’s top teams. Iannone’s day three time of 1:59.006 was enough to give him the third spot overall, proving that his transition from Pramac Ducati to the factory team is going smoothly if not excellently.

    “There has been a lot of work over the last three days, and I’m also happy with my new team: the guys have done a great job,” Iannone said. “Now I’m really anxious to try the new GP15 at Sepang 2, but in any case I’m happy with the way we have improved in the last few months.”

    Iannone took full advantage of the cool and dry day three, shaving over two seconds off his day one time. His final time was .526 seconds off Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez at the top of the charts.

    With a time of 1:59.874, Dovizioso placed seventh on the final time sheets, overshadowing his impressive fourth and second fastest times on days one and two, respectively.

    “I like Sepang a lot: I always manage to go well here and our speed is really good compared to that of our rivals,” Dovizioso said on day two after recording the second fastest time.

    Aboard the Desmosedici GP14.3, an evolution of the GP14.2 that debuted last season, Dovizioso and Iannone concentrated on chassis and electronics setups. The GP15 was originally set to arrive in time for the first test, but it was recently announced that it will debut at Sepang 2 later this month.

    “I am still using last year’s bike, with several important updates, but I’m really curious to try the new bike at the end of the month,” Dovizioso said. “The GP15 will be quite different from this one, but all the work we are doing is useful feedback for the new bike, and so the work in these three days is very important.”

    If the Desmosedici GP15 shows any marginal improvement upon the current lab bike, the Repsol Honda and Movistar Yamaha teams will have to seriously consider another duo of factory competitors in Ducati Team this season.

    Of the riders recording the five best final times, Iannone was the only rider not to finish in the top four in the championship in both of the last two MotoGP seasons. Aboard the Pramac Ducati in 2013 and 2014, Iannone finished 12th and 10th, respectively, in the points.

    MotoGP testing will continue at Sepang later this month, then at Losail in March before the start of the 2015 season at Losail.

  • Grand Prix of Japan Faces a Tough Task In Following Aragon Race

    Grand Prix of Japan Faces a Tough Task In Following Aragon Race

    The Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon was a chaotic and entertaining 800th premier class Grand Prix. While fans weren’t treated to a close race for the win at the line, it certainly wasn’t a one-bike runaway decided before the halfway point. Actually, somewhere in the middle of all the action was a short-lived, but intense, race for the lead between the two Repsol Honda riders.

    Equally as chaotic as the race was any effort to keep up with the several storylines unfolding as the race progressed. Jorge Lorenzo capturing his first win of the season at his home track was the statistically important event of the day.

    More intriguing was the top three riders in the points standings experiencing wrecks in their limit-pushing decisions to race on slick tires in wet conditions (exception: Rossi, who wrecked before rain arrived).

    Possibly even more intriguing were the two Brits and a German finishing in the top five, taking the spots typically occupied by Spanish and Italian riders.  

    But the most intriguing narrative to come out of Aragon was the Ducati 14.2 situation. While the other events I mentioned were byproducts of risky racing in the rain, isolated incidents that ended at the Aragon race, the Ducati story will still be creating a buzz when the Japan race starts. The Italian manufacturer’s first fielding of a new, heavily modified bike ended in both riders, Iannone and Dovizioso, crashing at Aragon. To some degree, the Ducati riders showed promise, which might come off as strange considering both of their Ducati 14.2 efforts ended in wrecks, but further analysis suggests otherwise.

    Andrea Iannone qualified on the front row and started the race strong. He pulled out to an early lead and effectively defended it through the first lap. What’s more, he engaged in tight racing with Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, and put up a fight that we wouldn’t have expected earlier this season. Hopefully Japan offers dry conditions and we’ll see what Iannone can do on this bike in a long run, because his early departure from the Aragon race left me wondering what could have been.

    Dovizioso wrecked in qualifying, which undoubtedly put a damper on any momentum he could have built for the weekend, so when he also crashed out of the race, it wasn’t as unpleasant of a shock as watching Iannone’s day end. But Dovizioso, too, may have had more to offer than the results suggest. He was confident that he could have competed in the end.

    “I even think I could have fought it out for the win with [Lorenzo], seeing the way things turned out,” Dovizioso said. “It was a situation we should have taken advantage of because a lot of riders made mistakes. Luckily I only bruised my buttock, not my pelvis, it hurts a bit but it’s nothing serious.”

    The future Ducati Team mates are able to race and on the climb, and if they can harness the advantages of their new bikes, they can raise eyebrows in Japan and the three following races before heading into the offseason.

  • Lorenzo Notches First Win of Season at Aragon

    Lorenzo Notches First Win of Season at Aragon

    Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo scored his first victory of the season at Sunday’s Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon. He crossed the finish line 10 seconds ahead of his competition after a chaotic series of events derailed several top competitors’ races.

    Lorenzo’s victory was Yamaha’s first ever at the 5.078-mile Motorland Aragon, and it came as Factory Yamaha’s second consecutive win of the season.

    The race was characterized by a slow-building onset of rain, which led to the demise of several riders’ efforts. Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa, the top three riders in the points standings, all experienced wrecks, which left Lorenzo in front at the finish line.

    Lorenzo’s win wasn’t simply handed over to him. Hard racing early and timely rain strategy later proved to be the winning formula.

    Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone started the race from the front row and took an early lead aboard his new heavily modified, narrower Ducati 14.2, and looked strong battling with Marc Marquez until dropping into second place and running off the track and crashing early on.

    Misano’s winner Rossi ran out of track as well on Lap Five, enduring a hard hit and eventually being taken off the course on a stretcher.

    Lorenzo pursued Marquez until they exchanged the lead on Lap Nine, and then again on Lap 12. They swapped the lead a few more times on Lap 14, until Marquez waved Lorenzo by to surrender the lead. Two laps later, Marquez and his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa overtook Lorenzo for first and second places.

    Pedrosa took the lead from Marquez on Lap 17, and they spent the remainder of that lap swapping position and running side-by-side. Meanwhile, the rain had grown much heavier and riders began coming into the pits to switch to wet tires.

    Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso crashed the other new Ducati 14.2 bike with five laps to go, shortly before planning on coming into the pits.

    Marquez regained the lead with five laps to go, and as he and Pedrosa crossed the finish line with four laps left, Pedrosa lost the front end of his bike and wrecked. At the same time, Lorenzo had elected to swap his bike out for the wet conditions.

    Marquez slipped around the track several times until the powers of nature finally won the battle, slipping his Honda out from underneath him with three laps to go. This opened up the lead to Lorenzo, who carefully navigated the track for the final three laps and took the win with a comfortable margin of victory.

    The real race was for second, as NGM Forward Racing’s Aleix Espargaro made contact with Ducati Team’s Cal Crutchlow and barely edged him out in a neck-and-neck dash to the line, scoring his first podium finish of his premier class career. Espargaro rebounded from an early race mishap that shuffled him off the track, and Crutchlow received his first podium result with Team Ducati.

    In fourth place was Stefan Bradl, whose place Crutchlow will be taking at LCR Honda next year. Rounding out the top five was Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith after recovering from 20th place on the opening lap.

    Drive M7 Aspar’s Nicky Hayden, the only American premier class rider, returned after a four-race injury hiatus and finished in ninth place.

    Marquez and Pedrosa salvaged three and two points, respectively, and maintained their spots as the top two drivers in the standings. Marquez leads Pedrosa by 75 points. Rossi, who had trailed Pedrosa by one point in third heading into Aragon, failed to complete the race, allowing Pedrosa’s 14th place finish to increase the gap between them to three points.

    Results:

    1. Jorge Lorenzo
    2. Aleix Espargaro
    3. Cal Crutchlow
    4. Stefan Bradl
    5. Bradley Smith
    6. Pol Espargaro
    7. Alvaro Bautista
    8. Hiroshi Aoyoma
    9. Nicky Hayden
    10. Scott Redding
    11. Danilo Petrucci
    12. Alex de Angelis
    13. Marc Marquez
    14. Dani Pedrosa
    15. Yonny Hernandez
    16. Michael Laverty
    17. Mike Di Meglio
    18. Broc Parkes
    19. Hector Barbera

    NC:

    Andrea Dovizioso

    Valentino Rossi

    Andrea Iannone

    Karel Abraham

  • Pedrosa Thwarts Marquez Record Attempt at Czech Grand Prix

    Pedrosa Thwarts Marquez Record Attempt at Czech Grand Prix

    Dani Pedrosa won the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic on Sunday, preventing his Repsol Honda teammate Marc Marquez from breaking the all-time record for consecutive wins to start a season.

    Last week at The Grand Prix of the Americas in Indianapolis, Marquez tied Giacomo Agostini’s 1971 record of 10 wins to open a season, but his fourth place finish at Brno left him one short of being the lone possessor of the record. It also came as his first premier class event without a podium finish. Marquez finished ten seconds behind Pedrosa.

    Pedrosa’s win on the 3.3-mile circuit came as his first grand prix win since Sepang of 2013 and his 26th premier class grand prix win aboard the No. 26 Repsol Honda.

    Marquez started from the pole, but dropped back to sixth at the start. Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone led early, until Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo passed both for the lead in one corner.

    Marquez dropped to sixth place early, but chipped away at positions up to third, passing Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and Iannone, respectively, in the opening laps.

    On Lap five, Iannone and Marquez swapped positions multiple times, including two instances of contact between the riders on consecutive corners, ending in Marquez holding the spot.

    While fans have grown accustomed to watching Marquez either dominate early or cut intervals until gaining the lead this season, it grew apparent well before the halfway point of the race that he was consistently losing the leader’s time.

    On Lap 6, Pedrosa passed Lorenzo for the lead, and built a safe lead of about 1.5 seconds, which he maintained for much of the remainder of the race. Lorenzo’s soft compound front tire may have contributed to his falling off the lead as the track warmed.

    With 10 laps to go, Movistar Yamaha’s Rossi made his move under Marquez, and the podium would hold that order at the end of the race, with Marquez left on the outside looking in from fourth place.

    While Pedrosa held a safe lead through the closing laps, on the final lap Lorenzo gained ground on the Honda rider, cutting the lead to a half-second, but never posed a threat to pass.

    Marquez still maintains a command of the standings, with a 77 point lead.

    Rossi made his 245th premier class race appearance, tying Alex Barros for the all-time record.

    It was the first grand prix since 2002 with no American riders, as Nicky Hayden is still out with an injury and Colin Edwards is retiring.

    Results:

    1. Dani Pedrosa

    2. Jorge Lorenzo

    3. Valentino Rossi

    4. Marc Marquez

    5. Andrea Iannone

    6. Andrea Dovizioso

    7. Stefan Bradl

    8. Aleix Espargaro

    9. Bradley Smith

    10.Alvaro Bautista

    11. Scott Redding

    12. Michele Pirro

    13. Hiroshi Aoyama

    14. Karel Abraham

    15. Leon Camier

    16. Aleix DeAngelis

    17. Hector Barbera

    18. Mike Di Meglio

    19. Broc Parkes

    DNF- Danilo Petrucci

    DNF- Cal Crutchlow

    DNF- Pol Espargaro

    DNF- Michael Laverty

    DNF- Yonny Hernandez

  • Marquez Wins Ninth Straight, One Away From Tying Record

    Marquez Wins Ninth Straight, One Away From Tying Record

    Honda Repsol rider Marc Marquez captured his ninth straight MotoGP victory at the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland on Sunday, bringing the 21-year-old’s perfect season to the doorstep of the all-time consecutive win record to open a season.

    Next month in Indianapolis at the Grand Prix of the Americas, Marquez can tie Giacomo Agostini’s record 10 wins to open the 1970 season.

    Marquez won the German Grand Prix in what has become typical dominant fashion, beating Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to the line by 1.4 seconds. The two Spanish riders were joined on the podium by fellow countryman and two-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

    The race at the 2.281-mile Saschenring began similarly to the previous event in the MotoGP schedule at Assen, Holland, with fickle rain showers leaving teams unsure of whether to run wet tires or slicks prior to the start.

    Unlike the Assen event, the opening to the German Grand Prix was characterized by a sort of organized chaos, with over a dozen riders coming to the pit, changing to slicks and then setting up for the start in a tight bunch at the end of pit lane.

    Marquez and Pedrosa, who were set to start first and second, respectively, were among the riders starting from the pit. LCR Honda rider Stephan Bradl elected to run slicks in advance, and was given the advantage of starting from his pre-determined spot on the front row by himself, with other riders gapped several rows behind him. After the starting group began the race from the track itself, the pit lane bunch was allowed to take to the course as the on-track group passed.

    Bradl’s early lead and wide gap to second was compromised within a few laps, with Marquez and Pedrosa catching and overtaking the German rider by Lap seven.

    The partially wet track dried over the coming laps, and Marquez and Pedrosa routinely swapped best lap times as grip increased.

    The Movistar Yamaha team also worked its way through the field, as Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi passed Bradl for fourth and fifth places, respectively.

    In the coming laps, Marquez maintained a lead of at least a half-second on his teammate, although Pedrosa never let the younger rider pull away. By Lap 22, however, Marquez increased his lead to 1.5 seconds.

    Marquez crossed the finish line with a comfortable gap to second, though not as wide as the previous round in Holland and several earlier rounds.

    The Repsol Honda and Movistar Yamaha riders maintained their positions in the top four, followed by satellite Ducati rider Andrea Iannone in fifth place.

    Tech3 Yamaha rider Bradley Smith crashed early, making it his fifth wreck of the weekend.

    Marquez extended his 72-point lead over Pedrosa to 77 points, while Rossi, who was formerly tied for second, drops to 84 points back in third.

     

    Results:

    1. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda)

    2. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda)

    3. Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha)

    4. Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha)

    5. Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing)

    6. Aleix Espargaro (Forward Racing)

    7. Pol Espargarò (Tech3 Yamaha)

    8. Andrea Dovizioso (Factory Ducati)

    9. Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda)

    10. Cal Crutchlow (Factory Ducati)

    11. Scott Redding (Gresini Honda)

    12. Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar)

    13. Karel Abraham (Cardion AB)

    14. Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar)

    15. Danilo Petrucci (Iodaracing)

    16. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda)

    17. Yonny Hernandez (Pramac Racing)

    18. Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing)

    19. Bradley Smith (Tech3 Yamaha)

    20. Colin Edwards (Forward Racing)

    21. Broc Parkes (Paul Bird Motorsport)

    22. Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing)

    23. Michael Laverty (Paul Bird Motorsport)

  • Marquez Stretches Perfect Season Win Streak to Eight

    Marquez Stretches Perfect Season Win Streak to Eight

    Marc Marquez captured his eighth consecutive win at the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, Holland on Saturday.

    The 21-year-old rider’s latest win in his currently perfect season increases his points lead over second place Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to 72 points. Marquez became the first rider to win the first eight premier-class races of the season since Giacomo Agostini in 1971.

    Round Eight of the MotoGP World Championship was declared a wet race before the start, and most riders elected to run wet tires on the 4.542-mile TT Assen Circuit.

    Marquez grabbed the early lead and swapped it with Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso a few times in Lap 1 before putting a half-second lead on Dovizioso in the next few laps.

    By Lap 4, Marquez had established a five second cushion between himself and third place Aleix Espargaro. First-time polesitter Espargaro spent the duration of the day battling with Pedrosa for the third spot.

    As the track began to dry, most riders came in on Lap 5 to switch to slicks.  Marquez led Dovizioso out of the pits and re-entered the track in second, behind Drive M7 Aspar rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who avoided the pit delay due to starting the race on slicks.

    Shortly after coming out of the pits, with the track still slightly wet, Marquez slipped in a corner and ran well off the track, and was overtaken by Dovizioso.

    By Lap 7, Dovizioso and Marquez had tracked down and passed Aoyama, establishing a two-bike race. Dovizioso held a four second lead over Marquez, while behind them Pedrosa took the third spot from Espargaro.

    Over the coming laps, Marquez reeled in Dovizioso, cutting the lead to three seconds by Lap 12, and down to one second by Lap 13.

    Crossing the line on Lap 15, Marquez blew by Dovizioso. Espargaro and Pedrosa continued  their battle for third, ten seconds off the lead.

    Dovizioso temporarily regained the lead, but Marquez quickly took it back on a pass in the chicane. Marquez, who was clearly faster than Dovizioso, pulled away in the coming laps.

    Once Marquez increased his gap to second, the rain clouds overhead became his only formidable adversary. His celebratory final lap was accompanied by rays of sun cutting through the clouds for the first time during the race. He won the race by 6.7 seconds.

    Pedrosa won his race-long battle with Espargaro for the final podium spot. Espargaro finished fourth.

    Valentino Rossi made a notable performance, steadily climbing the leaderboard up to fifth after starting the race from pit lane due to a late decision to run wet tires.

    Race Results:

    1. Marc Marquez

    2. Andrea Dovizioso

    3. Dani Pedrosa

    4. Aleix Espargaro

    5. Valentino Rossi

    6. Andrea Iannone

    7. Alvaro Bautista

    8. Bradley Smith

    9. Cal Crutchlow

    10. Stefan Bradl

    11. Broc Parkes

    12. Scott Redding

    13. Jorge Lorenzo

    14. Karel Abraham

    15. Danilo Petrucci

    16. Hiroshi Aoyama

    17. Nicky Hayden

    18. Hector Barbera

    19. Yonny Hernandez

    20. Mike Di Meglio

    21. Michael Laverty

    22. Colin Edwards