Marquez feared crashing chasing "inspired" Pedrosa in Jerez

After beating Marquez to pole position on Saturday, Pedrosa controlled the Jerez race from start to finish, taking his first win of 2017 by a little over six seconds in a Repsol Honda one-two.

Running with hard tyres front and rear, Marquez had been able to stay within a second of Pedrosa – who ran with the more conventional medium rear option – until the closing stages, but was never close enough to challenge.

Marquez explained that his crash out of the lead in last month's Termas de Rio Hondo race had made him think twice about pushing too hard to catch Pedrosa, whose performance he labelled "inspired."

"He has been fast all weekend," Marquez said of Pedrosa. "When he's inspired it's difficult to beat him, so I am very happy with this second position.

"I waited 10 laps to see if his front tyre went off. When I saw it didn't, I went quicker by a few tenths, but I had a scare. I recovered and then had another scare, and I decided to settle for second place.

"After what happened in Argentina, you reflect, and sometimes a mistake is good to make you think."

He added: "In Austin I won, but I had to do the race in a conservative way and today also. This is the way to win a championship.

"My goal was to arrive in Barcelona with a chance to fight for the title, and we are doing this. If I can reach Barcelona as the leader, we're on the right track."

Marquez's second place means he now lies third in the points, just four behind leader Valentino Rossi, who struggled to a 10th-place finish at Jerez.

Pedrosa, meanwhile, finds himself lying fourth in the points, 10 behind Rossi, and is feeling in a confident mood heading to the next round at Le Mans.

"The championship has got closer, and now it's a lot nicer," said Pedrosa. "We worked very well in the pre-season and we are starting to work even better.

"We hope to maintain this level and make the bike even better at Le Mans."