2018 Catalunya MotoGP Results | Recap from Barcelona

Since joining the Grand Prix motorcycle racing championship in 1996, the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit has been dominated by two riders.

Valentino Rossi led the way with 10 wins, and his former teammate/rival Jorge Lorenzo second with five wins.

Both MotoGP pilots performed well throughout the the 2018 Catalunya Grand Prix Sunday on the newly-resurfaced track. But it would be Lorenzo who would take the victory – his second-straight win after a dominating performance two weeks ago at Mugello.

After earning his first pole with Ducati, Lorenzo, who has signed with Repsol Honda for 2019/2020 MotoGP, led 23 of 24 laps en route to winning his 46th race – 25 of those wins he led every lap. But this wouldn’t be the case at Catalunya due to a bad start.

Regardless, when the Catalunya GP wrapped up, the Ducati Team GP18 pilot took the win by 4.479 seconds ahead of four-time MotoGP Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda).

Taking a lonely third was Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Rossi, who finished 6.098 seconds behind Lorenzo, and nearly three seconds ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.

This was Rossi’s third-consecutive third-place finish, keeping his hopes for a 10th World Title alive.

When the race began, Marquez, who started from second, got the hole shot, and led Team Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone and Lorenzo through turn one, with Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Rossi slotting behind.

Unfortunately for Dovizioso and Iannone – former teammates on the Ducati Team – one would suffer a crash, and the other a 10th-place finish. Dovizioso crashed out on turn 5 of lap nine, experiencing his third DNF after a strong start to the season with a win at Qatar.

Iannone had a strong start, but couldn’t remain up front with Lorenzo, Marquez and Rossi; all three podium finishers ran basically flawless laps.

Crutchlow took the top Independent Team Rider position with fourth, the Brit who won in Argentina finishing ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Vinales.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

• Johann Zarco, Monster Yamaha Tech 3: 7th, -13.432 seconds
• Danilo Petrucci, Alma Pramac Racing Ducati: 8th, -15.055
• Alvaro Bautista, Angel Nieto Team Ducati, 9th, -22.057
• Iannone, 10th, -24.141

Only 14 of 25 riders finished, and along with Dovizioso, these others crashed out: Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu), Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Sylvain Guintoli (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Tom Luthi (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Aleix Espargaro, Xavier Simeon (Reale Avintia Racing), and Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).

Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) retired on lap 12, and Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) on lap 18. Tito Rabat (Reale Avinita Racing) also suffered a DNF after he had to leap off his Ducati when it caught fire heading into Turn 1.

After seven of 19 rounds, Marquez extended his points lead by 27 ahead of Rossi. In third, 28 behind Marquez is Vinales.

The 2018 MotoGP series now breaks for two ahead of the Grand Prix of the Netherlands – the Assen TT.

Photo by Luciano Bianchetto

2018 Catalunya MotoGP Results

Coming soon…

2018 MotoGP Point Standings (after seven of 19 rounds)