2. Marc Marquez (MotoGP)
As if his first four wins weren’t impressive enough, Marc Marquez is now giving his rivals a head start before charging through to victory. That didn’t appear to be the scenario after he took his fifth straight pole by seven tenths of a second but a disastrous first lap, which included a near-clash with Jorge Lorenzo, dropped him to tenth, 2.7 seconds off the lead. Despite having nine riders to overtake, that was the furthest Marc would be from the front of the race.
Andrea Iannone’s second lap slip promoted him to ninth while Marc made short work of Alvaro Bautista and Dani Pedrosa to take seventh on lap three. Bradley Smith put up brief resistance before being dispatched on lap five while a second mix-up with Lorenzo almost derailed his progress a lap later. Jorge lost fifth at Dunlop moments later and Marc now had a free run at the four-man leading group.
Andrea Dovizioso’s open class Ducati was falling back down the order, ensuring Marc had little difficulty taking fourth, but Pol Espargaro and Stefan Bradl were both riding exceptional races and Marc needed to leave his braking as late as he dared to pass them both through the Dunlop chicane. Only one obstacle remained, a certain Valentino Rossi, but an ill-timed mistake at turn nine left the door wide open for Marquez and in the space of thirteen laps, he’d gone from the back of the top ten to the very front. That was the last they saw of him.
(Photo Credit: MotoGP.com)
