Marquez takes sixth win and extends lead after incident with Pedrosa

Marc Marquez

Championship leader Marc Marquez, starting from pole for the seventh time this season, extended his Championship lead with a fantastic win – his sixth of the season, but en route he and teammate Dani Pedrosa touched on lap six and as a result, Dani crashed out of the race.

Marc and Dani slipped back to 2nd and 3rd on the first lap but they both chased Lorenzo down and Dani set a new fastest race lap on lap two with 1'48.565. Dani passed Marc on lap five and the two Repsol Honda riders began to catch Lorenzo. It was during this chase that in the back straight, Marc and Dani briefly touched and during the contact, Marc caught a cable on Dani's real wheel and it snapped – disabling Dani's traction control and causing him to crash.

It is another disappointing blow for Dani in his bid to become World Champion. He remains on 219 points, 59 points off leader Marc on 278 points with four rounds remaining, Lorenzo is on 239 points – 39 off Marc.

Marc Marquez"
Today was a very grueling race, because I had to make two comebacks; the first was to catch Jorge after he broke free at the start, then I needed to make another after Dani passed me and I wanted to overtake him after two laps. I felt comfortable but I went a little wide under braking, lifted the bike up and made light contact with him. I'm not sure he even noticed it, but it was a bit of bad luck because the team told me I caused his traction control cable to snap and I'm sorry for that – it's something very unusual to see. The important thing is that Dani is OK. I was eventually able to overtake Jorge and take the victory, which is important in terms of both the 25 points and for my morale"

Dani Pedrosa"
Fortunately I'm fine physically. I took a heavy knock to my hip and my groin area, but I was unable to escape relatively unhurt from what was a big crash. Marc went in too wide on the corner entry, clipped me from the outside and I went flying when I got on the gas. My mechanics told me later that the traction control cable had been cut by the contact"

Race Result – Round 14

Pos Rider Time/Behind Nat Bike Team
1 Marc Marquez 42'03.459 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo +1.356 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Valentino Rossi +12.927 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Alvaro Bautista +13.787 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
5 Stefan Bradl +13.973 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
6 Cal Crutchlow +14.662 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Bradley Smith +31.220 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
8 Andrea Dovizioso +40.671 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Nicky Hayden +53.413 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Andrea Iannone +55.067 ITA DUCATI Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team
11 Aleix Espargaro +58.001 SPA ART Power Electronics Aspar
12 Yonny Hernandez +1'05.513 COL DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team
13 Randy De Puniet +1'06.589 FRA SUZUKI Suzuki Test Team
14 Hiroshi Aoyama +1'08.674 JAP FTR Avintia Blusens
15 Claudio Corti +1'09.130 ITA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing
16 Colin Edwards +1'12.041 USA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing
17 Luca Scassa +1'45.152 ITA ART Cardion AB Motoracing
18 Bryan Staring +1'45.228 AUS FTR-HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
19 Lukas Pesek +1'45.583 CZE IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project
20 Hector Barbera DNF SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
21 Dani Pedrosa DNF SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
22 Damian Cudlin DNF AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
23 Danilo Petrucci DNF ITA IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project
24 Michael Laverty DNF GBR PBM Paul Bird Motorsport