Even if the warm up somewhat threw the hierarchy of MotoGP riders into confusion on this modified Catalunya circuit, Valentino Rossi left his fans with little hope last night, during his press conference: “Our biggest problem is that the Medium rear tire does 5 good laps, then after 7 or 8 laps the right side goes bad. The Hard tire holds up for the whole race, we hope, but it is very difficult to drive with it, and to go fast; it’s 1,5 seconds slower.”
And yet ...
Uncertainty therefore, on the starting grid whose front row is made up of Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.
When the red lights go out, it's Jorge Lorenzo who starts the best and take the lead ahead of Marquez, Pedrosa, Iannone, Vinales and Rossi.
At the end of the first lap, at the end of the straight Rossi overtakes Iannone already in distress who is also passed by Vinales on the outside to the clamor of the crowd.
On the next loop, Rossi set the best lap in 1'46.165 and gradually came back on Pedrosa. He passes it at the entrance to the stadium. Vinales tries to do the same in the chicane but Pedrosa defends fiercely and maintains his 4th position. New attack at the end of the straight, new failure for #25.
Red lowers the best time to 1'46.102 and comes back on Marquez. He passes him after 5 laps at turn #4 and immediately catches up with Lorenzo before attacking and pass the Mallorquin at the end of the straight. Marquez does the same a few turns further. The #99 seems to have a problem since Pedrosa overtakes him without difficulty. Despite numerous attempts, Vinales has more difficulty while Bradley Smith retires with suspected gearbox problem.
On your mind, Rossi and Marquez escape and opened a gap of 2 seconds on Pedrosa.
Vinales took 3rd position shortly before halfway, to the detriment of Lorenzo, himself ahead of Iannone and Pol Espargaro by more than a second.
At mid-race, we find Rossi and Marquez in contact, 3 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, himself 3 seconds behind Vinales who has an advantage of 2 seconds over Lorenzo, and 4 over Iannone and Espargaro; the game seems set… except for victory!
In the lead, Marquez oscillates between 3 and 5 tenths behind Rossi; Is he observing or is he on the limit?
9 laps from the checkered flag, starting from way too far, Iannone does one of his famous “Iannonade” on Lorenzo and both men end up on the ground! The championship is restarted and the case will be studied by the Race Direction after this but we can assume that the Italian driver will be sanctioned...
Marquez is pushing hard to catch up with Rossi but suffered some forward slips. He nevertheless manages to get back into the rear wheel of the Italian driver and theattack with 5 turns remaining. L The first offensive results in a “drop of water” and #46 recovers his property. Another attempt in the following straight but Rossi releases the brakes and regains his first place.
The next attack will be the right one, at the end of the straight, but the Doctor responds to him in exactly the same place a lap later! The Yamaha rider managed to gain an advantage in sectors 2 and 3 and was 7 tenths behind at the start of the last lap…
It's too much for Marquez who gives up and prefers to secure a second place.
114th victory for a driver named Valentino Rossi!
Note the handshake between Marquez and Rossi in the parc ferme, which could well bury the hatchet between two men who, ultimately, respect each other...
Very nice 5th place for Pol Espargaro which again places its Yamaha Tech3 in the parc ferme, as 1st driver of the independent teams.
| Pos | Points | number | Pile | Country | Team | Motorcycle | Time/Gap | |
| 1 | 25 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Yamaha Motor Racing | Yamaha | 44'37.589 | |
| 2 | 20 | 93 | Marc Márquez | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +2.652 | |
| 3 | 16 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +6.313 | |
| 4 | 13 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +24.388 | |
| 5 | 11 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | SPA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +29.546 | |
| 6 | 10 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | GBR | Honda LCR | Honda | +36.244 | |
| 7 | 9 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | +41.464 | |
| 8 | 8 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +42.975 | |
| 9 | 7 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | OCTO Yakhnich bow | Ducati | +45.337 | |
| 10 | 6 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +46.669 | |
| 11 | 5 | 43 | Jack Miller | AUS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | +49.514 | |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +55.133 | |
| 13 | 3 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | +57.974 | |
| 14 | 2 | 53 | Tito RABAT | SPA | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | + 1'00.141 | |
| 15 | 1 | 51 | Michael PIRRO | ITA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | + 1'00.429 | |
| 16 | 45 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Yakhnich bow | Ducati | + 1'16.269 | ||
| 17 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 1 Tour | ||
| 41 | Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 7 Tours | |||
| 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | SPA | Yamaha Motor Racing | Yamaha | 9 Tours | |||
| 29 | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 9 Tours | |||
| 38 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 19 Tours | |||
