Seven wins from seven races for reigning World Champion, who battles for victory against Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa until the final corners. Pedrosa places third.
The Catalan Grand Prix was high on excitement on race day, and World Championship leader Marc Marquez sent the fans home happy with his seventh consecutive victory in a perfect season so far. He now has a total of 175 points to his name, from a possible 175. The win came after a thrilling finale, as he battled with fellow Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa. A mistake on the final lap dropped Pedrosa down to third, behind Valentino Rossi.
From the start of the race, MotoGP’s Fantastic Four of Marquez, Pedrosa, Rossi and Lorenzo offered the first signs that this could be the best race of the season to date. Overtaking was relentless, and there were moments of uncertainty like when Marquez and Pedrosa allowed Rossi back in front after passing him under a yellow flag. The finale saw Marquez lead, with Pedrosa right on his back wheel. After several attempts to overtake at virtually every corner of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, three corners from the end Pedrosa touched Marquez’ rear wheel and ran wide, ceding his position to Rossi. Marquez leads the series, Rossi is second with 117 points and Pedrosa is 5 behind in third.
The next round will take place in two weeks’ time at the historic Assen circuit, where the race runs on a Saturday.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
1st – 42:56.914
“I am delighted with this win because this is a track which I have always found difficult. You could see how tough it is for me this weekend: I missed out on pole for the first time this season and had my first crash of the year. The race was very hard with a battle against Dani, Jorge and Valentino. I think that the last few corners were especially spectacular, with the moves by Valentino and Dani. I am very happy about taking another 25 points and also to win on the same day as my brother at home in front of all our fans! It’s something very special.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd at 1.834 sec.
“It was a very good, hard-fought race because we had four riders up at the front for most of the race. There was a lot of overtaking and it was very intense, because we were going so fast. Overall I am very satisfied, even though the end result was not the best; we fought hard and I felt much better physically. I’ll take the positives from this race: I got my wish of being up at the front, both in practice and on the early laps of the race, and I ended the race fighting with Marc for the victory!”
