Ending a weekend of crashes on a high, Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez won the highly dramatic Spanish Grand Prix, taking the lead in the championship. The Honda rider wasn't in his best form over the weekend but managed to bring his best on race day taking the lead on Lap 9 and won the race by a gap of whopping over 7 seconds. However, the Spanish GP had more drama at the back with a massive crash wiping out Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Ducati riders Jorge Lorenzo as well as Andrea Dovizioso out of contention. As a result, Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco was promoted to second place on the podium with Andrea Iannone finishing third, his and Suzuki's second podium finish this season.
LCR Honda ride Cal Crutchlow was the pole sitter in the 2018 Spanish round of MotoGP, and the rider was certain that there was little gap for the factory Hondas to take over. Meanwhile, Pedrosa and Zarco started the race at P2 and P3 resepctively. In a big step for Lorenzo, the Ducati rider started at P4 with Marquez at P5 on the second row. However, Crutchlow was barely able to retain the lead once the green lights came up. Lorenzo took the lead with the poleman shuffled back to fourth, while Pedrosa and Zarco were in between.
undefinedThe fight for the final podium spot is well and truly on! #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/0i7qOaU0kl
— MotoGP(@MotoGP) May 6, 2018
Marquez was riding hard to get on to the top spot as Lorenzo settled into the lead. The Spanish rider passed Crutchlow on the last corner of the opening lap and was now charging at Zarco to take P3. Zarco ran wide on Lap 2 allowing Marquez to come in third, and now the top three spots were held by Spaniards.
Lorenzo continued to remain undeterred in the top spot with Pedrosa on his tail, but by Lap 4 Marquez passed his teammate to take P2 and was now looking to take the lead in the race, and the championship. The reigning world champion started putting pressure on Lorenzo, only for the latter to resist and hold on to his position. However, the Marquez made his move at the start of Lap 9 and passed the Ducati. By Lap 11, the Honda rider was leading the Spanish GP by a gap of 1.3 seconds, slowly breaking away from rest of the field.
(The crash wiped out both Ducatis and Dani Pedrsa out of contention)
Meanwhile, there was plenty of action in the middle order as the two Dovizioso climbed the order, having started at P8, while Vinales was pushed down to 12th place in the early stages. Pedrosa and Lorenzo were still in the top three, but soon started facing the heat from Dovi and Iannone.
With 8 laps to go in the 27 lap race, Disaster struck the Ducatis as both its riders were wiped out of contention in a single stroke. Dovi passed Lorenzo and ride wide on Turn 6, only for Lorenzo to move into the inside of the track and accidently hit Pedrosa in the process. The crash saw all three riders sliding into the gravel and being pulled out of the race.
The incident promoted Zarco to P2, Iannone to P3, while Rossi moved up to P5, sandwiched between Danillo Petrucci and Jack Miller from Pramac Ducati. This seemed like an opportunity for Rossi to take his first podium of the season as he waged a battle for third with Iannone. But, Petrucci was the one to move up to the third spot with five laps to go as Iannone moved to down fourth and Rossi was demoted to P6 behind Miller.
(Fortunately, neither of the riders were injured in the crash)
Iannone managed to regroup and chased Petrucci with two laps to go and succeeded in reclaiming the third spot by just tenths of a second, taking his second podium finish of the season.
The dramatic race has also brought some important changes in the championship standings. Marquez has taken the lead from Dovizioso in the rider standings with 70 points, while Zarco has moved to second place by a deficit of 12 points. Maverick Vinales now sits third 20 points down on Marquez with Iannone moving to fourth with a gap of 23 points. Former leader Andrea Dovizioso is now to fifth place, 24 points down.
