MotoGP may have returned to Europe, but it's still Marc Marquez who's dominating the field, as the Spaniard recorded his second win of the season at his home turf in Jerez. Behind Marquez, taking the second spot was Tech 3 Racing's Johann Zarco, while Suzuki's Andrea Iannone finished third. You could, however, say that both landed on the podium by sheer luck.
LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow was on pole, but it was Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo from the second row who launched off the line quickest to lead the race. Lorenzo was followed by Dani Pedrosa and Zarco, while Crutchlow dropped to fourth with Marquez right on his tail. The next few laps saw Marquez move up the order, and he was up to second in no time. Pedrosa was right behind in third. Crutchlow and Zarco were close behind fighting, but after having left the Frenchman behind, the pole-sitter Brit ended up in gravel. Meanwhile, Dovizioso upped his game and was hunting the top three.
At the front, Marquez took the lead from Lorenzo and started breaking away. Lorenzo and Pedrosa were now fighting for the second spot and were soon joined by Dovizioso. The battle between these three allowed Marquez to open the gap at the front.
The fight between two factory Ducatis was getting intense as Dovizioso seemed concerned about Marquez disappearing into the distance. Last year's winner Pedrosa was right behind the two red bikes and was very much hunting for the second place, if not a win this year. However, both men struggled to get past Lorenzo.
With 7 laps to go, Dovizioso made an overzealous move on his teammate, and while he did overtake Lorenzo, he ran wide. In turn, Lorenzo went off the racing line, but was too quick to cut right back, failing to notice that Pedrosa was already there! What happened next, as a result, was a carnage of sorts. Pedrosa crashed into Lorenzo, which followed in Lorenzo's bike torpedoing into Dovizioso. All three of them crashed!
The massive crash between the three didn't have any effect on Marquez, and he won comfortably. Zarco was lucky to finish second, but Iannone had to fight hard for the third place with Danilo Petrucci. Despite struggling all through the weekend, Rossi finished fifth ahead of Jack Miller.
Maverick Vinales was also lucky to finish within top ten, as he crossed the chequered flag in seventh. Alvaro Bautista, Franco Morbidelli and Mika Kallio rounded out the top ten.
Marquez (70) now leads the championship, while Zarco (58) has moved up to second place in the points table. Vinales is third with 50 points.
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