Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) took his second MotoGP win of the season in front of his home crowd.
Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, and Dani Pedrosa all crashed out whilst fighting for second place.
Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) took the crash as an advantage by finishing on the podium.
This year’s Spanish GP certainly did not disappoint the hundreds of thousands of fans congregating at the Circuito de Jerez. In front of his home crowd, Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda secured his second win of the year and also the championship lead with a very significant gap.
Starting the race from fifth position, Marquez got off to a good start but it was Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo who surprised everyone. Lorenzo shot towards the front of the pack and maintained his position for a number of laps. For a moment, the Spanish GP was all about the fight between Ducati and Honda.
As the temperature at the track got higher, the pace of many riders dropped and some even crashed out altogether. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was the first casualty followed by Thomas Luthi (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) and previous championship leader, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol).
The most talked about incident has to be the one that involved Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, and Dani Pedrosa. The three riders were fighting for second place and with eight laps remaining, all three tumbled down like a stack of bricks in what seems to be a racing incident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SbXJHo0AKg
Heading towards Turn 6, both Ducati boys went a bit wide when Lorenzo overtook Dovizioso. Seeing the opportunity to take second place, Pedrosa maintained his racing line close to the apex but unfortunately was met with Lorenzo who couldn’t see the Spaniard and led to a collision which started the domino effect.
At this moment in time, Marquez was basically cruising for his win followed by Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in second and Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in third. Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing) was the top Ducati rider yesterday in fourth followed by Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in fifth.
Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished the race in 16th place although having injured himself during training prior the weekend. It was a valiant effort for the Malaysian and he was certainly a respected MotoGP rider even with his injuries and changing difficult track conditions of Jerez.
The MotoGP circus will make their way to Le Mans in a fortnight for the 2018 HJC Helmets Grand Prix de France. Croissants and coffee, anyone?
Image source: MotoGP
