Misano MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins

The 2019 MotoGP Grand Prix of San Marino served up yet another late twist, with World Champion Marc Marquez passing Fabio Quartararo with a stunning move on the final lap to bag the win.

Quartararo led for the bulk of the race but could never put any distance between himself and Marquez. The standings leader, who was overtaken in the final lap of both the British and Austrian Grand Prix, out braked his rival late to cross the finish line first.

Valentino Rossi finished in fourth place, behind Maverick Vinales. Marquez's championship lead is now up to 93 points, moving ever closer to a sixth MotoGP world title. Vinales got way cleanly, while Marquez quickly moved up to third place, passing Franco Morbidelli. Andrea Dovizioso did not have a good start, finding himself in eighth place and well behind his main rivals.

Marquez and Vinales engaged in a battle for second place, giving Quartararo the opportunity to build an early lead at the front. Pol Espargaro bravely battled to keep hold of fifth place in the background but was eventually overtaken by Rossi. Marquez patiently hunted down Quartararo, dropping Vinales easily. The latter had a handful of poor laps in a row, but once he regained his composure, he was able to keep the gap under three seconds. With nine laps to race, Alex Rins' race came to an abrupt end when he lost traction in a corner. Cal Crutchlow also crashed out.

Rossi kept climbing, passing Morbidelli into fourth place, but all eyes turned to the front as the end of the race drew near. Marquez patiently waited before unleashing his attack with three laps to go and briefly took the lead, only to run wide and lose it again.

Austria MotoGP 2019: Andrea Dovizioso wins

Dovizioso wins the Austrian MotoGP after a brilliant last-corner pass on Marquez. Italian Dovizioso is still 58 points behind five-time world champion Marquez despite pipping the Honda rider on the final lap to gain his first race win since the season opener in Qatar.

The pair swapped the lead repeatedly over the closing laps and Marquez looked set to finally break Ducati's Red Bull Ring dominance, only for the Italian to launch a perfect block-pass at the very final opportunity for arguably his greatest victory to date.

 

Rookie Quartararo took the early lead when Marquez and Dovizioso ran wide after a braking duel on the opening lap. The Petronas Yamaha rider then outshone the factory M1s of Rossi and Vinales fair-and-square to complete the podium. Miller fell from the lead group while Espargaro KTM appeared to cut out at the apex of Turn 3, Crutchlow falling in the chain reaction that followed.

Seven-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi was fourth, his best result since finishing second in the US in April, but he is a whopping 127 points behind Marquez ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on August 25. Joan Mir withdrew from the event to continue his recovery from Monday's post-race fall at the Brno test. Jorge Lorenzo was again absent after fractures to his vertebrae at Assen and replaced by HRC test and wild-card rider Bradl.

Czech MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins

The amazing Marquez show continued at Brno, where Repsol Honda star Marc claimed a sixth win in ten races. With just one non-finish with a crash in Texas, Marquez has not finished lower than second so far – and today’s start to finish win by an eventual 2.452 seconds over Andrea Dovizioso extended his points lead over the Italian to a comfortable cushion of 63 points.

Weather struck the track on Saturday, leaving all riders short of set-up time and giving Marquez the chance to claim a blistering pole by some 2.5 seconds, with a high-risk run on slick tyres on a damp track. Today, confounding dry-weather forecasts, more showers hit the sweeping 5.403-km Brno circuit during the lunch break, forcing the start of the premier-class race to be delayed by 40 minutes to allow the patchily wet track to dry, and with race distance cut by a lap from 21 to 20.

 

Marquez led from the first corner to the last, closely pursued the first half by Dovizioso, Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki) and second qualifier Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati). After that, it was time to push. Marquez survived a scare at the bottom corner but was soon drawing away remorselessly. Dovizioso was safe in second; but Rins was struggling with wheelspin at the end, giving the determined Miller the chance for a late attack, to claim his second podium of the season.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) came through from 11th on the grid for fifth. His last victim had been Valentino Rossi (Monster Yamaha), who was three seconds ahead of star rookie Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha). Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) was ninth; Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) still close in tenth, managing to fend off a charging Maverick Vinales (Monster Yamaha), who had finished the first lap 15th after a dismal start from the third row.

Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM), who had given the Austrian marque its first front row in wet practice dropped to a distant 14th in the dry race. Marquez now has 210 points – an average of 21 out of a possible maximum of 25; then Dovizioso 147, Petrucci 129, Rins 114 and Vinales 91.