Marquez destroys the field to claim seventh COTA MotoGP win

Marc Marquez has won his second MotoGP race since returning from injury after dominating the entire COTA grand prix. 

As the lights went out, it was Marquez who got the best jump to lead into turn one. 

Pole sitter Francesco Bagnaia was moved back to third by Fabio Quartararo, before Alex Rins then relegated him to fourth. 

On lap three, Bagnaia was pushed down to sixth by fellow Ducati rider Jorge Martin and Takaaki Nakagami. 

However, Bagnaia used his Ducati horsepower to get back ahead of Nakagami along the back straight. Nakagami then crashed heading into turn 12. 

While Marquez continued to lead, the gap between him and Quartararo remained at less than half a second. 

In fact, the leading group consisted of six riders with Jack Miller bringing up the rear behind team-mate Bagnaia. 

On lap six, Marquez began upping his pace with a new fastest lap of the race. A four tenths lead was then increased to just over a second come the end of that same lap.

After getting past Bagnaia, Miller then got ahead of Rins at turn 12 before closing in on Quartararo and Martin. 

Quartararo managed to respond to Miller’s pace and instead pulled clear of Martin and the factory Ducati man. Behind those three, Bagnaia got through on Rins for fifth with 10 and a bit laps to go. 

Miller’s charge through the field looked to be over with nine laps to go after losing touch with Martin, instead it was Bagnaia catching him.

While all this was happening for fourth, Marquez was on a planet of his own in the lead. The eight-time world champion’s lead was over 3.5 seconds. 

That gap eventually grew to nearly five seconds by the end of the race as Marquez led every lap of the race. 

Quartararo came home second, while Bagnaia got third off Martin who had to endure a late long-lap penalty due to running on at turn three. 

The move from Bagnaia came before Martin served his penalty. There was late drama between Miller and Joan Mir as the Suzuki rider made contact with the Australian for the second time in two races. 

The contact let Enea Bastianini come through for sixth, before Miller had a heated exchange with Mir after the chequered flag.