Valentino Rossi wins the Catalan GP after an enthralling battle with bitter rival and championship contender Marc Marquez. The duo managed to pull a gap from Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) and battled until the penultimate lap after which Marquez backed off to take 20 precious points.
*** Marc Marquez's touching tribute to Luis Salom.
Jorge Lorenzo who got the holeshot into turn 1, struggled to keep up with the frontrunners and was overtaken by Dani Pedrosa and Maverick Vinales in quick succession. Lorenzo was in fifth place when Andrea Iannone torpedoed into his rear and took him down. The incident shall be reviewed by race direction and the decision shall be updated.
Team Suzuki Ecstar's Maverick Vinales showed a promising pace in the practice sessions, got a great launch off the second row of the grid. He overtook Jorge Lorenzo and remained on Dani Pedrosa's rear wheel till his rear tire started to go all over the place. Vinales eventually finished in 4th place as the only Suzuki rider to finish, 18 seconds off Pedrosa.
Top independent rider was Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3), who won the battle of the independents by fighting out riders to the likes of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Andrea Dovisiozo (Factory Ducati team). Pol's P5 put the Tech3 Yamaha team on top of the independent team standings with 53 points in their bag.
Mechanical problems caused many riders to retire, Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) had to retire with a damaged Gearbox and Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) pulled into the pits with a destroyed rear tire.
Lorenzo's second No-Points score means he submits the points lead to Marc Marquez, trailing the 23 year old Honda man by 10 points. Valentino Rossi's second race win helped him reduce the mammoth 37 point gap to a manageable 22, 12 points adrift his teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
Full race report and analysis shall be live on the site, stay tuned.
By: Suraj