MotoGP: Marquez makes it four from four in Brno

Marc Marquez battled to victory in Brno with the Spanish rookie scoring his fourth win in as many races for Honda HRC.

It didn’t come easy however and after a blistering start from the lights it was Lorenzo on the Yamaha that took up the challenge, charging to the lead from the second row, and by the second lap he had garnered a 1.2 second lead.

Despite some initially quick reactions from Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, who had qualified in pole and was looking for his first MotoGP win, the initial gear change from the lights wasn’t as slick as he would have liked and by the first turn he had to settle for fourth, with Rossi and Bautista close behind.

With three laps gone, his teammate and compatriot on the Yamaha Tech 3 – bradley Smith – who had also qualified excellently in sixth and was maintaining that position crashed out. It was to be the beginning of an awful day for the French, Yamaha satellite outfit.

With the group of three leaders, Lorenzo, Marquez and Pedrosa breaking away, it was imperative that Crutchlow push on and try to close the gap if he was to challenge for a podium place. WIth fifteen laps to go, an unforced lowside saw Bautista and Rossi shoot past and Cal having to pick his bike up from the gravel; managing to restart from a lowly – and impossible to recover from – twentieth place.

At the front of the race, the procession of the three championship and race leaders continued until lap fifteen when Marquez finally made his move and dived on the inside for the lead. Lorenzo instantly responded upon the next corner however, forcing the Honda rookie to regroup.

This consolidation only lasted four corners however, as a the young Spaniard battled through and crossed the line for the remaining six laps in first place. There was no danger of the volley of overtaking being finished with though and soon, Lorenzo, with his blistering corner speed managed to exchange a couple of moves with Marquez for the lead. Before – once again – Marquez stole back the commanding position and finally managed to break free.

Meanwhile, Marquez’s team mate Pedrosa followed patiently, biding his time and letting the two in front battle amongst themselves. With five laps left, he made his move on a slowing Lorenzo and took second place. At the same time, a lowly Cal Crutchlow managed to overtake Laverty on the Paul Bird CRT to cement his seventeenth finish.

With vital championship points up for grabs this leaves the Britain chasing Valentino Rossi for fourth. The top three ahead of them echoing the final result from today’s race.

Naturally, Marc Marquez entered the winners’ enclosure in jubilant mood, ‘I enjoyed that a lot. The battle with Jorge was so nice, I loved it’.

Pedrosa, content with his finish and with some admiration for his fellow Honda rider added, ‘I felt like I was the quickest today, but Marc is so late in braking that it’s hard to stay with him’.

The last word from the three Spanish riders and podium finishers came from a deflated Lorenzo, ‘I’m a little bit disappointed to be honest. I was in the leading position and I tried my best for the win but it wasn’t to be.’

 

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	166.4	42’50.729
2	20	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	166.4	+0.313
3	16	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	166.3	+2.277
4	13	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	165.8	+10.101
5	11	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	GO&FUN Honda Gresini	Honda	165.8	+10.178
6	10	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	165.1	+19.807
7	9	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	164.2	+35.015
8	8	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	164.1	+35.354
9	7	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Energy T.I. Pramac Racing	Ducati	163.2	+51.149
10	6	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	162.8	+56.392
11	5	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR Kawasaki	162.8	+57.420
12	4	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Ignite Pramac Racing	Ducati	162.3	+1’05.430
13	3	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda-Suter	161.9	+1’12.364
14	2	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Avintia Blusens	FTR	161.8	+1’13.500
15	1	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	161.7	+1’14.128
16		68	Yonny HERNANDEZ	COL	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART	161.7	+1’14.991
17		35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	161.3	+1’20.640
18		70	Michael LAVERTY	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	PBM	160.5	+1’34.462
19		17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	ART	159.6	+1’49.713
20		67	Bryan STARING	AUS	GO&FUN Honda Gresini	FTR Honda	159.6	+1’50.024
21		45	Martin BAUER	AUT	Remus Racing Team	S&B Suter	152.5	1 Lap
Not Classified
		38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	161.4	20 Laps
		52	Lukas PESEK	CZE	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda-Suter	156.0	20 Laps
		71	Claudio CORTI	ITA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR Kawasaki	152.4	21 Laps
		8	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Avintia Blusens	FTR	152.2	21 Laps