Malaysia MotoGP 2019: Maverick Vinales storm to dominant victory

Spain Maverick Vinales stormed to a dominant victory in the Malaysian MotoGP as World Marc Marquez fought his way from near the back of the starting grid to finish second. Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso came in third but there was a disappointment for French rookie Fabio Quartararo, who only managed a lackluster seventh place after starting from pole.

Vinales dominated at the Sepang circuit from the outset, quickly breaking through the pack and taking the lead from the early stages after starting second on the grid. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider steadily extended his lead over the rest of the pack and never looked threatened. Vinales had a lead of about two seconds over Marquez soon after the halfway mark of the 20-lap race, and he finished over three seconds in front.

It was a major boost for Vinales following last week's Australian MotoGP, where he crashed out after leading for much of the race -- and handed victory to compatriot Marquez. The 24-year-old's second victory of the season leaves him in third place in the overall standings, with one race remaining. Marquez, crowned world champion for the sixth time last month, had started in 11th place after a terrifying crash in qualifying which saw him thrown from his bike. But the Repsol Honda rider surged into second place after just a few laps and stayed there until the end of the race. He opened up a big gap with the rest of the pack, finishing two seconds ahead of Dovizioso of Italy.

There was however a tough fight for third place between Dovizioso, who won at Sepang in 2016 and 2017, and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi. Rossi managed to push past Dovizioso on several occasions, only for the Ducati rider to snatch the lead back and finish the race just ahead of his compatriot. Quartararo had dominated all weekend going into the MotoGP, topping the timesheets in practice and smashing the lap record, before seizing his fifth pole position of the season. But the 20-year-old Petronas Yamaha rider appeared no match for his more experienced rivals in the main race, quickly falling back at the start of the race. The MotoGP in tropical Malaysia has often been disrupted by torrential downpours in previous years but the rain stayed away this year for the whole weekend.

Catalan MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez dominated the Catalan Grand Prix at Barcelona, after a crash for his Honda teammate Jorge Lorenzo took Andrea Dovizioso and the two factory Yamahas out of the race. Lorenzo, who had charged from 10th on the grid to join the lead battle, fell at the sharp Turn 10 left-hander while trying to pass Maverick Vinales, taking down his compatriot, as well as Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi in the process.

Marquez overtook pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo off the line, but yielded to a fast-starting Dovizioso at Turn 1, and was soon also briefly overtaken by Vinales. Having regained second place, the championship leader pressured Dovizioso, and snuck past the Ducati man on the second lap at Turn 10. At that same corner, Lorenzo committed down the inside of Vinales for third place but hit the deck on corner entry. His bike clattered into Dovizioso rear, and the resulting crash removed both Vinales and Rossi – who had gone wide to avoid the pile-up - from the race.

The crash left Marquez on his own up front, and promoted Ducati's Danilo Petrucci to second place, the Italian unable to keep pace with the Honda man but managing to fend off both Suzuki's Alex Rins and Quartararo, who had been as low as ninth after the opening lap. On the 10th lap, Rins launched his bike down the inside of Petrucci at Turn 1, briefly getting ahead but running wide on exit, allowing Petrucci to sweep around the outside of Turn 2.

Rins recovered to fourth, passing the fading Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller on the final lap, with Miller keeping the other Suzuki of Joan Mir at bay at the line. Pol Espargaro was the lead KTM in seventh, while his works teammate Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10, the pair split by LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat. Aprilia's Andrea Iannone, Tech 3 KTM's Miguel Oliveira and Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli completed the list of 13 finishers.

Argentina MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins

After putting a spectacular fight in the first race of the season last month, Honda's Marc Marquez took a dominant win in the 2019 MotoGP Argentina Grand Prix. The rider completed the race with a massive lead of 9.816s over the rest of the pack, having led the race right from pole position. Coming in second was Yamaha's Valentino Rossi, going strong even as newer and younger riders take space on the grid. The Italian managed to pass Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso take P2, with each rider of the top three teams making it on the podium.

Marquez had a near perfect start to the race from pole and was quick to detach himself from the rest of the pack from Turn 1 of the opening lap. The Spaniard had a one-second lead at the end of the first lap, which extended to over three seconds by Lap 3, and was at its highest at 12 seconds by Lap 10, as the race reached half time. While Marquez was untouchable at the front, it was the battle for second place that brought in all the action over the 25 lap race.

Rossi had as a good start as Marquez and was quick to take second place, but Dovizioso was quick to challenge the position. The Ducati rider crossed Rossi early on into second place after the Italian ran wide at Turn 5 on Lap 7. However, Rossi recovered to P2 once again a lap later and held on to the position for the new six laps. Dovizioso was hot on his tail and found a gap on Lap 13 but with Rossi still a close third. It wasn't until the final lap that the Yamaha rider managed to pass Dovi at Turn 7 to retake P2 and cross the chequered flag.

Coming in fourth was Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller, 12.140s over the race leader, after a late pass on Suzuki rider Alex Rins who finished fifth. Factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci took sixth. Yamaha's Maverick Vinales though finished was expected to take seventh after a poor started pushed the rider from P2 to P4 and eventually P8 by the second lap of the race. The Spaniard, however, was taken out by Petronas SRT Yamaha's Franco Morbidelli on the final lap.

The incident promoted LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami to seventh ahead of Yamaha Petronas rider Fabio Quartararo (Petronas), Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia and KTM's Pol Espargaro. Coming in 11th was Miguel Oliveira of Tech3 KTM, followed by Honda's Jorge Lorenzo in 12th place, same as his qualifying position.

Coming in 13th was LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow who had a strong chance to be a podium contender but earned a ride-through penalty for a jump start that left him fending for 13th. The final point takers were Pramac Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco for KTM. The last finishers were Tech3 KTM's Hafizh Syahrin followed by Aprilia's Andrea Iannone in 17th place.

Qatar MotoGP 2019: Andrea Dovizioso wins

Italian Andrea Dovizioso fended off Honda’s MotoGP champion Marc Marquez at the last corner to win a dramatic season opening Qatar Grand Prix for Ducati. Dovizioso, who also battled Marquez down to the line a year ago under the Losail circuit floodlights, beat his Spanish rival by a mere 0.023 seconds.

Britain's Cal Crutchlow finished third for LCR Honda, a step up from last year's fourth, after Suzuki's Alex Rins made a late mistake and opened the door to the podium. Italian veteran Valentino Rossi, now 40 years old, completed the top five -- just 0.6 adrift of Dovizioso -- after starting 14th for Yamaha. Marquez seemed to be very pleased with his second-place finish at the Qatar MotoGP as this is a track where the team has traditionally underperformed. He has only won here once before - in 2014, the season where he won ten straight races.

2019 fast seems to be the season of great comebacks (a doff of the hat to Robert Kubica at the Williams F1 Team) as Cal Crutchlow grabbed third. Crutchlow, who is the second oldest rider on the grid, had been out injured with a busted ankle since the 2018 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix (October).

An unexpected hero on the racetrack was superstar Rossi, who started a lowly P14 but managed to work his way up to P5 — with the possibility of a podium seeming ever so close. Rookie Joan Mir also had a great result for Suzuki, keeping pace with the lead group and eventually finishing in eighth place. In fact, the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title is fascinating this year with four supremely talented rookies — Mir, Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia and Miguel Oliveira making their presence felt.

Valencia MotoGP 2018: Andrea Dovizioso wins

A smashing and crash ridden finale to the 2018 MotoGP season, Ducati Andrea Dovizioso won the Valencia Grand Prix turning out to be one of the few riders to actually complete the very wet race.

The rain drenched track made for a spectacle at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, as the top riders were pulled out of contention after back-to-back crashes. The race was even stopped at half-point bringing with the red flag out, only to be started again for a 14 lap stint. Dovizioso ended the season just like he started it - with a win. However, the race was a game changed for KTM, which saw rider Pol Espargaro take his and the team's first ever podium in the sport. Suzuki's Alex Rins took his fifth podium of the season, finishing behind Dovizioso.

The Valencia GP started out wet but was drying when the race begun. However, it wasn't long before the clouds were back over the circuit and the track was soaked again. Yamaha's Maverick Vinales started on pole in a surprise qualifying session, but couldn't hold on to the lead for long as Rins and Dovi were quick to pass the rider on Turn 2 of the opening lap. Rins took the lead and was a good 2 seconds clear of Dovi. The next few laps saw Rins extend his gap further to 4 seconds.

Bringing an end to a legendary career, Honda's Dani Pedrosa completed his final MotoGP race in fifth place, ahead of Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami. Tech3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco and KTM's Smith finished at P7 and P8. Tech3's rookie rider Hafizh Syahrin finished tenth behind Stefan Bradl, who was standing in for LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow. Aprilia's Scott Redding finished 11th, ahead of Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo and a damaged Yamaha ridden by Rossi. Bautista, who also crashed, re-mounted to finish 16th, behind Angel Nieto's Karel Abraham, who moves back to WSBK next year and Jordi Torres.

Malaysia MotoGP 2018: Marc Marquez wins

Marc Marquez took a comfortable ninth victory of the 2018 MotoGP season in the Malaysian Grand Prix after long-time leader Valentino Rossi crashed. From second on the grid, Rossi outdragged poleman Johann Zarco to take the lead into the first corner and from there proceeded to build a lead of more than a second.

Marquez meanwhile quickly set about making up for his six-place grid penalty for impeding Andrea Iannone in qualifying and by the end of the fifth lap of 20 he had taken up station behind Rossi. Initially Rossi was able to extend the gap over his former arch-rival, but as the race moved into its second half Marquez began to chip away at the Yamaha rider's advantage.

Closing in at around a tenth per lap, Marquez had managed to get within 0.6 seconds of Rossi when the Italian rider suffered a low-speed crash at Turn 1 with three laps to go, denying the crowd a repeat of the pair's infamous 2015 Sepang duel. Marquez inherited a lead of four seconds over Zarco as a result of Rossi's incident, and from there he was able to cruise to a straightforward 1.8s win and clinch the constructors' title for Honda.

Zarco was passed for second by the Suzuki of Alex Rins on the final lap at Turn 4, allowing Rins to equal his career-best result, while Zarco held on for third to claim his first podium finish since May. Maverick Vinales could well have contended for victory but for his poor grid slot of 11th, which left him losing time stuck behind the Nieto Ducati of Alvaro Bautista in the early laps.

Pedrosa fifth place equals his best result of a difficult 2018 season, while Andrea Dovizioso endured a low-key run to sixth on the best of the Ducati’s. Hafizh Syahrin stormed from 23rd and last on the grid to 12th on the opening lap, and managed to secure the final top 10 position on a day he became the first Malaysian to start a premier class grand prix. Aleix Espargaro was 11th ahead of Franco Morbidelli, LCR Honda stand-in Stefan Bradl, Takaaki Nakagami and Bradley Smith.

Misano MotoGP 2018: Dovizioso beats Marquez

Andrea Dovizioso scored a straightforward third win of the MotoGP season at Misano ahead of Marc Marquez, as Jorge Lorenzo crashed out of second place. Dovizioso scored Ducati's third successive race win - the first time the Italian marque has taken a hat-trick since 2008 - after scything his way from fourth on the grid in the opening laps and then setting a pace his adversaries couldn't match.

Lorenzo and Marquez managed to close the gap in the latter stages until the former slid out at the Turn 8 left-hander on the penultimate lap, which left Dovizioso with a clear run to victory. Poleman Lorenzo hung onto the lead in the opening sequence of corners ahead of fellow front-row starter Jack Miller, as Marquez jumped to third ahead of Dovizioso.

But by the end of the lap Dovizioso had cleared both Marquez and Miller to move into second, and on the sixth lap of 27 he eased past Lorenzo on the run down to the Turn 8 left-hander to assume command. By that time, Pramac Ducati man Miller had crashed out of what had become fourth, leaving the leading trio with a significant gap over the rest. Dovizioso lead was hovering at less than a second until he set a new fastest lap on lap nine and five laps later his advantage had grown to nearly two seconds.

Marquez and Lorenzo, engaged in a thrilling scrap over second, edged back towards Dovizioso in the final five laps but the Italian was able to stabilize his gap and finally take the chequered flag by 2.8s after Lorenzo's crash. Behind Marquez, LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow - who ran a lonely fourth for most of the race - was promoted to the final podium spot, a further 4s down on Marquez, followed by Suzuki man Alex Rins. Yamaha's Maverick Vinales failed to make the most of his front-row starting spot, slipping to fifth on the opening lap and ultimately ending up in the same position.

Teammate Valentino Rossi had a similarly indifferent run to seventh behind the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa. Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Alvaro Bautista (Nieto Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) completed the top 10.

German MotoGP 2018: Marc Marquez wins 9th straight race

Marc Marquez has re-written another piece of history, storming the Sachsenring from a ninth pole in a row to take his ninth win in a row across all classes. Valentino Rossi took second and maintains his second place in the standings after an impressive bounce back with the podium completed by teammate Maverick Vinales.

At lights out it was Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) who got the holeshot from pole, moving from third into the lead as Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing) slotted into second – with Marquez shuffled back into third. Rossi made a good start from sixth to move into fourth ahead of teammate Vinales, with Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) the key man to lose out from fifth.

Petrucci top Independent Team rider in a well-fought fourth, just ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Team)’s stunning ride to fifth. Bautista was the fastest man on track for a good number of laps and kept that incredible form to the end, the final man able to muscle past Lorenzo by the flag.

Lorenzo took P6 ahead of a tough day for teammate Andrea Dovizioso, with Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) putting in a solid ride to eighth. Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) improved from his worst qualifying of the season so far to take ninth despite the difficult weekend, with an incredible ride from Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) putting the Brit in tenth to take KTM’s first top ten of the season.

Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was top rookie in eleventh and takes over at the top of the Rookie of the Year standings, ahead of Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar), who was caught in an early incident that saw Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) make contact with Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and both go down; also affecting Iannone and Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing. Miller finished P14, with Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) between him and Iannone. Scott Redding (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) completed the points.

Spain MotoGP 2018: Marquez wins and take lead

Marc Marquez won his home Spanish Grand Prix and took the overall MotoGP lead after the reigning champion’s main rivals collided spectacularly. The Honda rider was in a race of his own for the last eight laps after the Ducati pairing of Andrea Dovizioso, the previous championship leader and Jorge Lorenzo collided with Honda Dani Pedrosa while fighting for second place.

Pedrosa, who had wrist surgery less than a month ago, was thrown high over his bike after trying to go past the two Ducati’s on the inside. Lorenzo came across into the corner as Dovizioso went wide, colliding with Pedrosa and sending the two Ducati’s into the gravel. All three riders walked away from the crash. French Tech3 Yamaha rider Johann Zarco was gifted the runner-up slot, 5.241 seconds behind, and is now Marquez's closest rival in the championship.

Four times world champion Marquez, who started the race from fifth place, now has 70 points after four races to Zarco's 58. Dovizioso dropped to fifth overall with 46. Italian Andrea Iannone finished third for Suzuki. Compatriot Valentino Rossi was fifth at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain in a race that saw him reach a career milestone by completing the circumference of the planet in race kilometers.

Rossi has now covered 40,075km in competition over 23 seasons, starting at the 1996 Malaysian Grand Prix. Britain's Cal Crutchlow started on pole position for the LCR Honda team but failed to finish, crashing out at turn one after nine laps and while in fourth place.

Qatar MotoGP 2018: Dovizioso beats Marquez by 0.027s

Ducati Andrea Dovizioso took victory in a closely fought first MotoGP race of the 2018 season in Qatar; just 0.027s ahead of reigning champion Marc Marquez’s Honda. Dovizioso and Marquez formed part of a 10-bike queue that headed the field for much of the race, with poleman Johann Zarco converting pole position into an early lead aboard the Tech 3 Yamaha.

It wasn't until lap 18 of 22 that Dovizioso and Marquez finally made their moves, both passing Zarco at Turn 1 and quickly distancing the Frenchman to engage in their own private duel for victory. In scenes reminiscent of their battles last year in Austria and Japan, the two 2017 title protagonists ran nose to tail for the final laps, with Marquez attempting a pass at the final corner on the last lap.

But Dovizioso managed to edge back ahead exiting the turn, getting superior traction and out dragging Marquez to the finish line by the tiny margin of 0.027s for his ninth career MotoGP victory. Seven tenths behind the lead duo was Valentino Rossi, who passed Zarco on the same lap as Dovizioso and Marquez but couldn't keep up the pace in the closing laps.

Cal Crutchlow was fourth on the LCR Honda, a further two seconds behind, ahead of Danilo Petrucci's Pramac Ducati. Both had been part of the leading group bottled up behind Zarco, but the extra lap they took to clear the satellite Yamaha allowed the leading three to escape. Zarco ended up slumping to eighth at the finish, losing out to the second works Yamaha of Maverick Vinales and the second factory Honda of Dani Pedrosa in the latter stages.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Italy

World Champion Marc Marquez of Spain won the San Marino MotoGP in slippery conditions to join Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso at the top of the world championship standings. Marquez, on a Honda, finished ahead of Italy’s Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci on a wet track with Dovizioso, also on a Ducati, finishing third.

Both Marquez and Dovizioso have 199 points in the world championship standings with five races left in the season. It was a 59th career win for Marquez, who started from third on the grid and took the lead from Petrucci on the final lap to secure his 33rd win the MotoGP category. The top three in the title race lined up on the front row but it was Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo who got the best start from the second row. But Lorenzo was one of several riders to come off his bike in the slippery conditions along with fellow Spaniard Hector Barbera.

Petrucci battled with the reigning champion and Marquez finally pounced on the last lap to notch up a 25-point haul. Earlier, Swiss rider Dominique Agerter (Suter) won the San Moto2 Grand Prix ahead of Kalex duo Thomas Luthi of Switzerland and Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin, to claim his second career win. Italy’s Romano Fenati of Honda defied driving rain to claim his eighth career win in Moto3. In a race hampered by numerous falls and skids off the track, Fenati finished ahead of Spanish world champion leader Joan Mir and Italy’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, both also riding for Honda.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Netherlands

Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi won his first race for more than a year, as he came through to take victory in a thrilling MotoGP Netherlands Grand Prix. The veteran hadn't savored glory since the 2016 Catalan Grand Prix, but he showcased all his experience in spades at Assen, as he held off Ducati's Danilo Petrucci in an absorbing battle. Defending world champion Marc Marquez came home in third place for Honda.

Rossi's team-mate Maverick Vinales crashed out, allowing Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso to take the lead of the championship by four points; the top four riders in the standings are now covered by just 11 points. It was Johann Zarco who started the race on pole having produced a storming qualifying performance. The rookie eventually didn't finish in the shakeup for victory, losing ground due to a misguided tactical switch and coming home in 14th spot.

Another rider who endured a disappointing day was Vinales. After enjoying a blistering beginning to the season with his new team, the young Spaniard has lost momentum in recent weeks and paid the price for losing balance at Turn 17 with 14 laps to go. With the duo out of contention, some more seasoned competitors were juking it out at the front in pursuit of the victory, with Rossi moving through into first position. Petrucci was keeping the Doctor on his toes, though, as the pair engaged in a fascinating tussle.

Indeed, as the heavens threatened to open and drizzle sprinkled across the Assen circuit, the riders needed to be careful. Eventually, it was the duo aforementioned who handled the conditions the better, as they pulled away from the rest of the field. The Italians each held the lead in the final stages, as they each pushed their bike to the limit in pursuit of the win. World Superbikes rider Alex Lowes paid tribute to another great Rossi performance, who has now won 10 times at the Assen circuit.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Spain

Dani Pedrosa took an impervious victory in his home Gran Premio Red Bull de Espana, storming away from his first pole position since Sepang 2015 and never looking back. The MotoGP™ race in Jerez was race number 3000 in the World Championship and one of the riders equal third on all-time podiums proved a fitting winner.

Reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) made inroads in the points battle in second, ahead of a stunning home ride from another five-time World Champion – Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team), sharing the podium with Pedrosa to keep the parity at 146 rostrum finishes apiece for the former nemeses.

Pedrosa got the holeshot from a great start off pole position, with Marquez slotting in behind ahead of an almighty tousle for third. LCR Honda rider Crutchlow was initially ahead of that battle - with Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) warring Championship leader Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) once again until the flying Frenchman set off on a charge, taking bike after bike in now-signature style.

Arriving behind reigning Champion Marquez into third, the rookie held station for a lap as Lorenzo fought back in a tight midfield, getting past Rossi and then Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP). Zarco then took Marquez at the final corner, heading off after Pedrosa in the lead until the reigning Champion hit back. After Pedrosa stunning domination on home turf, the Championship is game on in Le Mans with Rossi now two points clear of Vinales, Marquez just behind and Pedrosa now fourth in the standings – only ten points back.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of America

Marc Marquez has handed a championship lifeline in MotoGP Grand Prix of Americas, with his fifth consecutive victory in Texas made all the more sweeter by the fact that the winner of first two races of the season in Maverick Vinales crashed out.

After victories in Qatar and Argentina, hopes were high that Yamaha rider Vinales could challenge Marquez, the only man to win around the Circuit of the Americas in MotoGP having won all four previous races since the track was added to the calendar in 2013.

Marquez himself was coming off crashing out of the lead in Termas de Rio Hondo two weeks’ ago, leaving himself with a 37-point deficit in the process to Vinales, but the reigning world champion has clawed back vital ground ahead of the start of the European season after Vinales crashed out in America on the second lap of the race.

Marquez has cut the gap to Vinales to just 12 points as a result, but finds veteran Valentino Rossi out in front on 56 points after bagging his third consecutive podium finish, despite being handed a bizarre time penalty for a clash with Johann Zarco. Marquez got off the line well but it was his Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa, who led into turn one from Marquez and Rossi, with Vinales dropping to fifth before overtaking Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Qatar

Yamaha Maverick Vinales wont the season opening Qatar Grand Prix, the first round of the 2017 MotoGP Championship, after winning an intense duel for victory with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. Vinales started from pole position and dropped to fifth early, but stormed back into contention in the second half of the race and then kept the Ducati at bay to start life with his new team in style.

The French rookie lined up fourth, but forced his way past Vinales into second at the first corner and then into the lead with a move on Andrea Iannone later on the first lap. Zarco, who changed to a soft rear tyre on the grid, strolled away at the front of the field, and led by 1.640 seconds after six laps. However, that was the end of his charge, crashing at Turn 2 the next time around. That handed the advantage to Dovizioso, who built a lead as Marc Marquez, Iannone, Vinales and Valentino Rossi – both Yamahas emerging after a quiet start – fought behind him.

The riders remained cautious around the corners of the drying track, but there were no accidents in the opening moments. Zarco was quicker than anyone in the race in his debut, and his sheer pace left the current champion in his wake. The leader's splits were hugely impressive as Marquez chased, but the champion simply could not close the gap between himself and the former Moto2 kingpin. Cal Crutchlow crashed out as he lost control on the tricky Qatar track, ending his hopes, but the most dramatic moment of the day came as Zarco hit the floor and slid out of contention through the gravel.

However, Dovizioso continued to show heart in an exciting race, pushing for the lead with Rossi in his slipstream. The Ducati rider simply would not give up as he pursued Vinales, but the threat of Rossi was beginning to shape the race. The 38-year-old legend was producing a performance level many believed he would not in this event, and his experience saw him ride a great strategy. Honda's Marquez was out of contention in the final three laps, and he simply did not have the pace to threaten the very front.

MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of Great Britain

Maverick Vinales has claimed his first MotoGP Victory and the first for Suzuki since 2007 with a dominant performance in the British MotoGP at Silverstone. The Spaniard broke away early in the restarted race and never looked back, pulling a near five second lead as a thrilling fight developed behind him.

Suzuki hasn’t won a race since Chris Vermeulen at Le Mans in 2007, with its last pure dry win back in 2000 with Kenny Roberts Jr. rising star Vinales is the fourth new race winner of the season and different winner so far. Home star Cal Crutchlow eventually finished 3.5s from Vinales to be best of the rest in second place, having got the better of Marc Marquez in the closing stages.

The world championship leader ran wide while trying to re-pass Crutchlow LCR Honda after a close moment at the end of the Hangar Straight, initially dropping Marquez back to fifth. The Repsol Honda rider had earlier been involved in an equally close duel with Valentino Rossi who completed the podium after he made his late mistake.

Ducati Andrea Lannone slid out of second as the race entered its closing stages, with Dani Pedrosa completing the lead group. Marquez overtook his team-mate after rejoining the track following the near miss with Crutchlow. Marquez now takes a slightly reduced 50 point advantage over Rossi into next weekend Misano round. Reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile lost further ground in the championship with a forgettable eighth place. 

MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of Czech Republic

Cal Crutchlow became Great Britain’s first premier class winner since Barry Sheene 35 years ago as the LCR Honda rider clinched his maiden MotoGP triumph at Brno in the Czech Republic. On a wet track, Crutchlow 15^th in the early stages, gambled with hard tyres front and rear and it proved a masterstroke as the 30 year old began to scythe his way through the field.

Rossi, back in 12^th place until he was able to take advantage of his hard rear, finished 7.2 seconds behind Crutchlow at the end as the nine-time world champion moved ahead of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in the championship standings. Lorenzo, who was back on the rostrum in the previous round in Austria, was one of the few riders who came into pit lane to change bikes.

Title leader Marc Marquez finished on the rostrum in third on the Repsol Honda with another resilient performance to keep any damage to his championship advantage to minimum, with Rossi only closing the deficit by four points. Behind the top three, French rider Loris Baz also stormed through at the end to nick fourth place on the Avintia Ducati ahead of team-mate Hector Barbera.

 Northern Ireland’s Eugene Laverty rode an excellent race to finish sixth on the Aspar Ducati ahead of Danilo Petrucci while Austrian GP winner Andrea Iannone somehow limped over the line in eighth. Marc Marquez is still at first place with 197 points, followed by Valentino Rossi with 144 points, followed by Jorge Lorenzo with 138 points.