Barcelona MotoGP: Dovizioso beats Hondas for second straight win

From seventh on the grid, Dovizioso jumped into the lead pack and then emerged on top after a battle with Honda’s Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.

Seven days after winning in the dry for the first time at Mugello, Dovizioso claimed Ducati’s first win at Barcelona since Casey Stoner’s 2007 victory.

Stoner was also its last winner of consecutive races, at Aragon and Motegi in 2010.

Despite making a terrible start from the middle of the front row, Jorge Lorenzo was able to pass Pedrosa for the lead at Turn 5 on the opening lap, and ran at the front for the opening stages.

But the Ducati rider never led by more than half a second and then fell to sixth in the space of just over one lap, a chain started by Marquez firing a move down the inside at Turn 10 on lap six.

Pedrosa followed Marquez through, before Lorenzo was passed by his teammate Dovizioso at Turn 14, then Tech 3 Yamaha’s Jonas Folger and Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci - who bumped into Marquez off the line - the next time around.

Lorenzo’s drop left the Hondas and Dovizioso as the lead three, shadowed by Folger.

Dovizioso passed Marquez for second on lap eight, and starting the second half of the 25-lap race the lead quartet was covered by just eighth tenths.

It was status quo for the next phase, until Dovizioso made his move, passing Pedrosa into Turn 1 starting lap 17, finishing it with a 0.439s buffer.

Marquez put a move on Pedrosa into Turn 4 the next time around to reclaim second, by which point Dovizioso’s lead had doubled.

While Marquez initially looked like he might be able to mount a challenge, Dovizioso responded and led by more than one second for the first time entering the final five laps.

From there, Dovizioso charged on to take his fourth career MotoGP victory by 3.544s.

Marquez settled for second, having crashed five times across the weekend, while Pedrosa faded late but still completed the podium.

After dropping down the order in the first third of the race, Lorenzo regrouped to finish in fourth place as his hard rear tyre came into its own.

He fought off a challenge from Valentino Rossi, then emerged on top of a spirited battle with Alvaro Bautista and Johann Zarco.

With a pair of quick moves on Folger and then Petrucci, at Turns 10 and 13 with four laps remaining, he moved into fourth place, ultimately finishing 9.608s behind Dovizioso.

Petrucci crashed at Turn 5 on the penultimate lap, while Folger struggled late on heavily-worn tyres and was passed for fifth by Zarco, the pair split by just 0.083s crossing the line.

Bautista finished seventh, while Rossi was the best of the Yamahas in a distant eighth, 20.821s off top spot.

Rossi's teammate Maverick Vinales got away slowly from ninth and fell to 16th, and ultimately finished in 10th, largely aided by attrition.

He maintains the championship lead, but now only by seven points over Dovizioso, with third-placed Marquez 23 adrift.

Aleix Espargaro started fifth and lost several places early, before pulling his smoking Aprilia over on lap eight.

Marc VDS Honda’s Jack Miller was the only rider other than Petrucci to crash, also at Turn 5, from 10th place early in the second half of the race.

Race results

Pos.	#	Driver	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	25	44'41.518
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	25	44'45.062	3.544
3	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	25	44'48.292	6.774
4	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	25	44'51.126	9.608
5	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	25	44'55.356	13.838
6	94	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	25	44'55.439	13.921
7	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	25	44'58.281	16.763
8	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	25	45'02.339	20.821
9	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	25	45'05.470	23.952
10	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	25	45'05.707	24.189
11	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	25	45'09.847	28.329
12	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	25	45'14.799	33.281
13	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	25	45'16.718	35.200
14	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	25	45'20.954	39.436
15	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	25	45'22.390	40.872
16	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	25	45'24.739	43.221
17	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	25	45'26.173	44.655
18	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	25	45'30.511	48.993
19	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	25	45'37.010	55.492
Ret	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	23	41'16.068	2 laps
Ret	43	Jack Miller	Honda	13	23'18.364	12 laps
Ret	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	7	12'33.993	18 laps