• Marc Marquez won the Spanish MotoGP 2019.

• Polesitter Fabio Quartararo had gone as high up as 2^nd but had to retire with mechanical problems.

• Alex Rins finished 2^nd on the Suzuki.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) won the Spanish MotoGP 2019 race convincingly, but it was a heartache for Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamah SRT).

Staring from 3^rd on the grid, Marquez blasted into the lead with the two Petronas Yamaha SRT riders, polesitter Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli trailing behind into Turn 1.

As Marquez controlled the race from the front, both satellite Yamaha riders followed closely. But on Lap 8, the reigning world champion upped his pace and started to drop the pursuing duo.

But it wasn’t long before Morbidelli’s started dropping into the clutches of his teammate Quartararo and Maverick Vinalez (Monster Energy Yamaha). Quartararo passed Morbidelli in the next lap and hunted down Marquez. Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) once again rode his way up the field and passed Vinalez for 4^th.

Although the Frenchman was only 0.1s slower than Marquez, the latter had opened up a 2-second lead.

Suddenly, Quartararo’s bike began to slow on Lap 16 and he pulled off the circuit to a stop. It was revealed later that his quickshifter had broken. With no way to reset the system to manual shifting, his and the team’s dream evaporated underneath the Spanish sunshine.

In the meantime, his Petronas Yamaha teammate Morbidelli started to slow drastically down the order to 6^th. Rins had overtaken him by that point into 2^nd while Vinalez had to defend from Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati).

Vinalez held on to his nerve and position at the flag to complete the podium positions.

Dovizioso finished 4^th, followed by his teammate Danilo Petrucci to complete the Top 5.

Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha) worked his way up to 6^th after a disastrous qualifying which saw him starting from 13^th on the grid. Morbidelli finally crossed the line in 7^th; Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) in 8^th; his teammate Takaaki Nakagami in 9^th; and wildcard rider Stefan Bradl rounded out the Top 10.

It was a race to forget for KTM as the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing riders Pol Espargaro came home in 13^th followed by his teammate Johann Zarco in 14^th. The Red Bull KTM Tech 3 Racing riders Miguel Oliveira took the flag in 18^th in front of Hafiz Syahrin in 19^th.

All pictures from MotoGP.com