Marquez wins 7th straight in Barcelona

Marquez fights for control of his bike under heavy pressure from Rossi and Pedrosa

Marc Marquez did it again. Marquez bounced back from his Q2 crash to achieve victory at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya.

In a sensational race between three riders, Marc escaped final-lap contact with Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to maintain his unbeaten 2014 MotoGP run in the Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona.

Although the result was Marquez's seventh win from seven races this season, he only won after a race long battle with Pedrosa, and the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

It was Lorenzo who muscled his way into the lead on the opening lap, going around the outside of fast-starting polesitter Pedrosa at Turn 1.

Marquez came close to hitting Rossi at one stage when he braked too late at Turn 1 and had to shoot over the run-off area to avoid a collision.

That temporarily dropped Marquez behind Pedrosa in third, and gave Rossi some very brief respite before the four-bike lead pack came alive again in the closing stages.

The Repsol Honda rider was engaged in a race long battle with Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) that went down to the final corners. The trio were joined by Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) at the start of the race and briefly towards the end.

It was a drama packed race as Marquez ran into Turn 1 too quickly and was forced to run wide, allowing Rossi to create a gap. With seven laps to go there was some confusion as a result of a yellow flag at Turn 3 which saw the leading group close together.

Podium celebration

A seventh consecutive win was secured for the reigning MotoGP World Champion when Pedrosa ran wide on the final lap. This victory also marks Honda’s 100th victory in the modern MotoGP era. Marquez now has a 58-point lead in the championship.

Marquez reflected, "Of course today was more difficult than Mugello, as the Yamaha riders were very strong early in the race. I was struggling a little bit but then I caught Valentino. I made a mistake in turn one and after that I lost maybe a second and I was catching Vale again. The last laps were so nice, the fans helped a lot. It was really special to fight the last laps with Dani and Valentino."

"It was also special to win on the same day as my brother, he did an incredible race

Results – 25 laps

Pos. Points Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Time/Gap
1 25 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 42'56.914
2 20 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +0.512
3 16 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda +1.834
4 13 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +4.540
5 11 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda +11.148
6 10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha +14.213
7 9 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +16.127
8 8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati +16.175
9 7 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati +18.040
10 6 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +24.781
11 5 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati +37.153
12 4 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda +42.921
13 3 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda +43.299
14 2 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team Ducati +55.157
15 1 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda +59.191
16 0 23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM +1'00.906
17 0 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM +1'01.284
18 0 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha +1'06.121
19 0 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Avintia +1'25.195
20 0 84 Michel FABRIZIO ITA Octo IodaRacing Team ART +1'40.665
DNF 0 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia 8 Laps
DNF 0 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 15 Laps
DNF 0 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 22 Laps
DNF 0 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 24 Laps