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MotoGP Jerez: Valentino Rossi takes dominant win

Valentino Rossi claimed the 87th premier class victory of his career to ignite his quest for an eighth MotoGP title, with a masterclass to win the Spanish Grand Prix

A day after taking his first pole position in 10 months, the Yamaha rider ended a winless run that went back to last August's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Rossi kept the lead off the start and while team-mate Jorge Lorenzo challenged him early, he was able to resist that threat and edge away, leading by just under three seconds halfway through the 27-lap Jerez race.

With tyre wear at the forefront of discussions all weekend, Lorenzo then started to make a move.

The gap came down to 2.1 seconds with nine laps to go, but Rossi responded, putting two tenths and then half-a-second back onto it on the following two laps.

With five remaining, the margin was out to more than three seconds for the first time all afternoon, and got up to more than four-and-a-half, before Rossi cruised home on the final lap for an eventual margin of 2.386s.

Rossi's start to the campaign had been mixed, with fourth in Qatar and a fortunate podium in Argentina followed by a fall at Austin a fortnight ago, but he started the European season in the best-possible fashion.

Lorenzo had to withstand pressure from Marc Marquez for the first half of the race, but the Honda rider fell away over the remainder to finish nearly 5s behind the world champion.

With the results, Marquez keeps the championship lead on 82 points, 17 ahead of Lorenzo and 24 clear or Rossi.

Dani Pedrosa ran ahead of his team-mate briefly early in the race and eventually finished fourth, ahead of Suzuki pair Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales.

Andrea Iannone salvaged seventh from 11th on the grid, ending a torrid weekend as Ducati struggled with power delivery.

For the third race in a row, his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was forced out through no fault of his own.

Dovizioso opted to race on the softer front tyre and ran as high as fifth, but retired from seventh on lap 10 with a technical problem at the rear end of his Ducati.

Pol Espargaro was the leading satellite rider in eighth, ahead of Eugene Laverty and Hector Barbera.

RACE RESULT

Pos Rider Team Laps Gap
1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 27 45m28.834s
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 27 2.386s
3 Marc Marquez Honda 27 7.087s
4 Dani Pedrosa Honda 27 10.351s
5 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki 27 14.143s
6 Maverick Vinales Suzuki 27 16.772s
7 Andrea Iannone Ducati 27 26.277s
8 Pol Espargaro Tech3 Yamaha 27 30.750s
9 Eugene Laverty Aspar Ducati 27 32.325s
10 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati 27 32.624s
11 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 27 38.497s
12 Bradley Smith Tech3 Yamaha 27 39.669s
13 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati 27 45.227s
14 Stefan Bradl Aprilia 27 47.886s
15 Yonny Hernandez Aspar Ducati 27 47.988s
16 Michele Pirro Pramac Ducati 27 49.414s
17 Jack Miller Marc VDS Honda 27 49.513s
18 Tito Rabat Marc VDS Honda 27 53.334s
19 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati 27 1m05.555s
- Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 9 Water pump
- Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 5 Accident

STANDINGS

Pos Rider Points
1 Marc Marquez 82
2 Jorge Lorenzo 65
3 Valentino Rossi 58
4 Dani Pedrosa 40
5 Pol Espargaro 36
6 Maverick Vinales 33
7 Aleix Espargaro 32
8 Hector Barbera 31
9 Eugene Laverty 28
10 Andrea Iannone 25
11 Andrea Dovizioso 23
12 Bradley Smith 20
13 Stefan Bradl 17
14 Scott Redding 16
15 Alvaro Bautista 14
16 Michele Pirro 12
17 Tito Rabat 11
18 Cal Crutchlow 5
19 Loris Baz 4
20 Yonny Hernandez 3
21 Jack Miller 2


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