Two weeks after his Mugello win, Jorge Lorenzo today it two in a row by winning the Catalan GP at the Montmeló circuit. The Spaniard, who started from pole, moved into the lead of the race on lap 2 when he passed Marquez, and then firmly held onto that position right until the chequered flag, finishing over four seconds ahead of his Honda rival. Lorenzo has now moved up to seventh place in the overall standings on 66 points, equaling his team mate, but with more wins.
Marc Marquez took an important second-place finish in Catalunya, which enabled him to extend his Championship lead to 27 points over runner-up Valentino Rossi. Marquez stuck to Lorenzo for the first nine laps of the race, looking for a chance to fight for the win. After realizing that it was too risky maintaining Lorenzo’s pace, he settled for the 20 points and a second-place position.
Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi took his third consecutive third-place finish in the 2018 MotoGP World Championship at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya. Rossi had a good start from seventh on the grid and stormed to fifth going into Turn 1. One lap in, he passed Andrea Iannone and was in pursuit of the three-rider front group. With Andrea Dovizioso crashing out in lap 9, the Doctor moved up to third place. With a 3.5s gap to the leaders and over 2.5s to the rider behind him, the remaining 15 laps were a lonely ride for the Italian rider.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow took fourth spot while Dani Pedrosa was able to maintain a decent pace despite struggling with a lack of grip, defending fifth position over Maverick Vinales on the final lap. It was an unfortunate race for Andrea Dovizioso, who also started from the front row after going third-quickest in qualifying on Saturday. The Italian crashed under braking for Turn 5 when he was in third and had to retire.
The next race of the MotoGP World Championship will be in the Netherlands, at the Assen circuit for the Dutch TT from June 29 to July 1, 2018.
Check out the complete race result below
Pos. | Rider | Num | Points | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | LORENZO Jorge | 99 | 25 | Ducati Team | 40’13.566 |
2 | MARQUEZ Marc | 93 | 20 | Repsol Honda Team | 4.479 |
3 | ROSSI Valentino | 46 | 16 | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 6.098 |
4 | CRUTCHLOW Cal | 35 | 13 | LCR Honda | 9.805 |
5 | PEDROSA Dani | 26 | 11 | Repsol Honda Team | 10.640 |
6 | VINALES Maverick | 25 | 10 | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 10.798 |
7 | ZARCO Johann | 5 | 9 | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 13.432 |
8 | PETRUCCI Danilo | 9 | 8 | Alma Pramac Racing | 15.055 |
9 | BAUTISTA Alvaro | 19 | 7 | Angel Nieto Team | 22.057 |
10 | IANNONE Andrea | 29 | 6 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | 24.141 |
11 | ESPARGARO Pol | 44 | 5 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 36.560 |
12 | REDDING Scott | 45 | 4 | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 38.229 |
13 | ABRAHAM Karel | 17 | 3 | Angel Nieto Team | 1’21.526 |
14 | MORBIDELLI Franco | 21 | 2 | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 3 laps |
15 | SYAHRIN Hafizh | 55 | 0 | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 4 laps |
16 | RABAT Tito | 53 | 0 | Reale Avintia Racing | 6 laps |
17 | MILLER Jack | 43 | 0 | Alma Pramac Racing | 7 laps |
18 | SMITH Bradley | 38 | 0 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 11 laps |
19 | NAKAGAMI Takaaki | 30 | 0 | LCR Honda | 11 laps |
20 | RINS Alex | 42 | 0 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | 13 laps |
21 | DOVIZIOSO Andrea | 4 | 0 | Ducati Team | 16 laps |
22 | SIMEON Xavier | 10 | 0 | Reale Avintia Racing | 17 laps |
23 | ESPARGARO Aleix | 41 | 0 | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 20 laps |
24 | LUTHI Tom | 12 | 0 | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 21 laps |
25 | GUINTOLI Sylvain | 50 | 0 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | 22 laps |
26 | KALLIO Mika | 36 | 0 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | DNF 1st lap |