Photo by Gold & Goose
Once friends, but now bitter rivals, Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez turned in one of the best MotoGP battles of the season at Catalunya. Rossi worked his way to the front after a poor start to eventually lead. Marquez challenged Rossi the entire way with some great passes and repasses in the closing laps bringing the sun-drenched crowd to its feet. In the end Marquez made a slight mistake overcooking a turn with a lap and a half to go allowing Rossi the breathing room he needed take his second victory of the season. Dani Pedrosa finished third.
Rossi would call the race one of the greatest wins of his career.
On this weekend of sadness with the death of Moto2 racer Luis Salom, Rossi and Marquez put aside their rivalry for a moment in Parc fermé and graciously shook hands and with big smiles from both. The crowd watching on the big screen responding with massive applause.
Runner up Marquez could at least take away the consolation prize of the lead in the world championship.
The other huge story was that of previous world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo going out with a crash, having been hit from behind by Andrea Iannone.
Lorenzo took the early lead after a blazing start. Marquez ran second and Pedrosa moved past Iannone to take over third mid-way through the first lap. Rossi lost a few positions in the first few turns, but by the second lap was earning some of those spots back and was quickly past Iannone and Viñales to fourth. Viñales rounded out the top five with Iannone chomping at his heals.
A few laps in and the top five had gapped the rest of the field. All eyes went to the torrid battle for fourth between Pedrosa and Viñales. Viñales made repeated lunges and attacks, but could not manage to hold the position as Pedrosa responded each time. Pedrosa later blamed Viñales’ over-aggressive moves for losing touch with the leaders.
In the early part of the middle stages it was Rossi on the move. He closed in and then made a solid pass on Marquez to take over second. He then found himself on the rear tire of his Yamaha teammate Lorenzo.
It was then Rossi going to the inside and outbraking Lorenzo into turn one and then holding him off in the next few turns to take over the lead. A few turns later Marquez swooped under Lorenzo in turn five, Marquez obviously not wanting Rossi to make a break.
Lorenzo seemed to be having grip problems with the combination of a medium compound rear and high track temperatures and with 17 laps to go it was Pedrosa dropping him to fourth. And then after several laps of trying, Viñales finally got by Lorenzo going into turn four with 14 laps to go and this time was able to make it stick to hang onto fourth.
With eight to go Iannone got too hot into a turn, hammered his front brakes and got the Ducati on its nose, then torpedoed into Lorenzo. Both crashed out. Lorenzo would not accept Iannone’s repeated attempts at what looked like him trying to apologize.
Up front Marquez continued to stalk Rossi and survived a tense moment when Marquez tucked the front end of his Honda, but quickly recovered.
With five to go Marquez made a quick pass with Rossi responding and getting back to the front. It happened again in turn one a lap later. Marquez seemingly having no regard to his position in the world championship, instead looking for the instant glory of victory.
With three to go Marquez finally made a pass stick, drafting by into turn one. Rossi took back the point in turn one with two to go setting up an epic battle to the finish. But suddenly with a lap and a half to go Marquez ran wide in turn seven, allowing Rossi to open up his advantage. Rossi crossed the line with one lap to go with a 7-10ths of a second advantage.
On the final lap Marquez had nothing left and Rossi powered home to victory by a margin of 2.652 seconds.
“I was in front for most of the race,” said Rossi, who earned his 88th-career premier class victory. “I was pushing a lot, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get enough of a gap on Marquez for escape. I know that it would be hard. I was worried at the end when he came down, but when I saw him in front I understand that I can do and I tried all the time and was able take the small gap that is so important for to arrive first on the last lap. It is a great, great victory – one of the best of my career. It is for Luis Salom and all his family.”
Marquez now leads the series after seven rounds of 18 rounds by 10 points over Lorenzo (125-115). Rossi is third with 103 points.
The next round is the Dutch TT on June 26, the first time ever the classic race runs on a Sunday.
GRAN PREMI MONSTER ENERGY DE CATALUNYA MotoGP Race Classification 2016
| 1 | 25 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 156.4 | 44’37.589 |
| 2 | 20 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 156.3 | +2.652 |
| 3 | 16 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 156.0 | +6.313 |
| 4 | 13 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 155.0 | +24.388 |
| 5 | 11 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | SPA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 154.7 | +29.546 |
| 6 | 10 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | LCR Honda | Honda | 154.3 | +36.244 |
| 7 | 9 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 154.0 | +41.464 |
| 8 | 8 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 153.9 | +42.975 |
| 9 | 7 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 153.8 | +45.337 |
| 10 | 6 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 153.7 | +46.669 |
| 11 | 5 | 43 | Jack MILLER | AUS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 153.6 | +49.514 |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 153.3 | +55.133 |
| 13 | 3 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 153.1 | +57.974 |
| 14 | 2 | 53 | Tito RABAT | SPA | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 153.0 | +1’00.141 |
| 15 | 1 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | ITA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 153.0 | +1’00.429 |
| 16 | 45 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 152.1 | +1’16.269 | |
| 17 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 149.1 | 1 Lap | |
| Not Classified | ||||||||
| 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 152.7 | 7 Laps | ||
| 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 155.9 | 9 Laps | ||
| 29 | Andrea IANNONE | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 155.8 | 9 Laps | ||
| 38 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 145.6 | 19 Laps | ||
