Agencies
Brno, August 17
Marc Marquez’s MotoGP winning streak ended at Brno as Dani Pedrosa took victory ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.
Honda’s Marquez immediately lost his pole advantage at the start, beaten away by the Ducatis of front row partners Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso.
The championship leader then fell right back to sixth during a busy first lap, losing ground when the determined Jorge Lorenzo attacked both works Hondas and moved his Yamaha up to third.
Eager to make an early break, Lorenzo overtook the two leading Ducatis in a single move on lap two and then quickly pulled a one-second lead over the pack.
But despite Lorenzo’s early pace, Pedrosa would prove to be the man to beat. Although he made slightly slower progress past the Ducatis, once into second he swiftly destroyed Lorenzo’s lead and then overtook him on lap five of 22.
Lorenzo never let Pedrosa get more than 1.8s ahead, and closed his lead down to under a second on the final lap, but the Honda rider had the race under control and took his first win since the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix in October last year.
Marquez had a spectacular battle with Iannone – in which they exchanged places four times in half a lap and hit each other twice in the process on his way back through to third, which is where his charge stalled.
Rossi came back at him, overtaking the Honda at half-distance and then pulling away, leaving Marquez to trail home a muted fourth.
It was the first time Marquez had ever finished a MotoGP race off the podium, with last year’s crash at Mugello and disqualification at Phillip Island the only other times he has missed a rostrum spot.
Iannone and Dovizioso continued to battle frantically for top Ducati honours all race, with the Pramac man finally beating the works rider over the line to take fifth by 0.195s.
