Marquez in control at Spanish MotoGP to regain points lead

Full Spanish MotoGP race results

Marc Marquez has produced a ruthless performance to take victory at the Spanish MotoGP and regain the world championship lead from Andrea Dovizioso who just missed out on his maiden podium at Jerez.

The Repsol Honda rider bolted into the lead at the first corner, getting the better of the Petronas Yamaha duo Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli who started from the front two places, and notched up a relentless pace to gradually pull out a lead at the front before defending his advantage to secure his second win of the campaign.

With Dovizioso missing out on the podium, Marquez leads the standings by a single point from Alex Rins who grabbed second place for Suzuki following his dramatic maiden MotoGP win last time out in the United States.

Rins made solid progress up the order, getting ahead of both factory Ducati riders early on, before reeling in a Yamaha train of Morbidelli, Quartararo and Maverick Vinales.

As Morbidelli began to struggle to keep up the pace at half-race distance, Quartararo darted ahead to take second place but his breakthrough round was cruelly ended early by a quickshifter problem, which let go on Lap 13 down the back straight, leaving the 20-year-old to tumble down the running order before retiring.

With Rins promoted to second place having also got the better of Morbidelli, as the Petronas Yamaha faded badly as the race went on, Vinales climbed to third place but the Monster Yamaha rider had to fend off a late race attack from Dovizioso to seal his first podium of the season.

Dovizioso, who still hasn’t taken a podium at Jerez in the premier class, led home Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci who secured his best result of the year in fifth place ahead of Valentino Rossi in sixth place.

The nine-time world champion’s charge was ultimately thwarted early on by his lowly grid position in 13^th place, losing a lot of time stuck behind Jack Miller, and has now dropped to fourth place in the standings.

Morbidelli held on to seventh place for the independent Yamaha squad ahead of LCR Honda duo Cal Crutchlow and Takaaki Nakagami.

Stefan Bradl profited to take 10^th place after a late clash between Miller and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro. Miller had been defending from the Spaniard on the inside of the final corner but clashed at the apex which saw the Pramac Ducati rider tumble out.

With Espargaro recovering for 11^th place, Jorge Lorenzo took 12^th after a poor start and underwhelming race pace cut him adrift of the front pack for Repsol Honda.

Pol Espargaro led home the Red Bull KTM charge in 13^th ahead of team-mate Johann Zarco with Tito Rabat rounding out the points for Avintia Ducati.

Karel Abraham had to settle for 16^th on the other Avintia Ducati but ahead of Aprilia wildcard Bradly Smith and the Red Bull KTM Tech 3 duo Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin.

Joan Mir (Suzuki) and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) were the other non-finishers due to separate crashes, while Andrea Iannone did not start the race due to injury sustain in FP4.