Valentino Rossi topped off a fantastic weekend by taking his first win at Jerez since 2009.
Rossi claimed pole in the closing stages of qualifying which allowed him to make a fantastic start to the race; he led into the first corner and remained in front throughout gaining a lead on second with no one able to come close to the Italian throughout.
Rossi led ahead of his teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso who soon lost third position to Marc Marquez. Dovizioso soon lost another place to Dani Pedrosa. The four factory riders then started to create a gap to the rest of the field.
Eugene Laverty made a fantastic start on his Aspar Ducati, as he gained seven places on the first lap. The Irishman qualified in fifteenth and had moved up to eighth slotting in just Pol Espargaro, before he soon overtook the Tech 3 rider during lap five, moving up to seventh.
On lap two, Marquez attempted to overtake Pedrosa but went wide. He regained the place later on at turn thirteen and regained third spot back from his teammate.
Marquez was then in pursuit of Lorenzo, who had just attempted to overtake Rossi who retaliated and took first place straight back. Rossi then went on to complete his fastest lap, creating a gap between him and the rest of the field. This left Lorenzo and Marquez to scrap for second place after Dani Pedrosa had dropped off the pace.
Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales appeared to be struggling to turn his GSX-RR as he worked to catch Dovizioso, he soon got past him. Meanwhile, his teammate Aleix Espargaro was having his best weekend so far this season on was in pursuit of fourth place from Pedrosa.
Aprilia’s Alvaro Bautista crashed out on lap six; he was unhurt. On the same lap, Vinales managed to get past Dovizioso, taking the Suzuki rider into sixth place.
With twenty-one laps to go, Rossi now had a 1.5 second lead on Lorenzo who was followed closely and Pedrosa was at risk of being caught by Aleix Espargaro. Dovizioso was in seventh position behind Maverick Vinales and was almost thrown from his Ducati due to a fault with his rear tyre; a gesture from Laverty confirmed something was wrong and Dovizioso was forced to retire meaning his bad luck is continuing this season now he has collected his third DNF in three races.
Soon after, Laverty lost the spot as the top independent to Pol Espargaro who cleanly overtook on the inside of a right-handed corner. Behind them, LCR Honda rider and Ducati rider Andrea Iannone were battling for tenth position (Iannone struggled all weekend and only qualified in eleventh on the grid).
After overtaking each other a few times Iannone soon got past; he then went on to get past Avintia Ducati rider Hector Barbera, Laverty and Espargaro within the space of a few laps. Near the front Aleix Espagaro overtook Pedrosa who reclaimed his place, and Marquez ran wide when he tried to outbrake Lorenzo after chasing him down the back straight.
Rossi won comfortable with 2.386 second lead ahead of five Spaniards led by his teammate Jorge Lorenzo who looked extremely disappointed at the end of the race. Marquez finished just under five seconds behind Lorenzo and ahead of his teammate Pedrosa. The two Suzuki riders claimed fifth and sixth as Aleix Espargaro finished in front of Vinales. Iannone finished as the top Ducati in seventh ahead of Pol Espargaro who was the top independent rider just second ahead of the second independent rider Laverty in ninth.
Barbera claimed six points in tenth ahead of Crutchlow, Bradley Smith, Loris Baz, Stefan Bradl and Yonny Hernandez , who claimed the last point.
Injured Danilo Petrucci’s replacement Michele Pirro claimed sixteenth ahead of the Marc VDS pairing Jack Miller and Tito Rabat, and Scott Redding finished in nineteenth after a difficult weekend on his Pramac Ducati.
Marquez still leads the championship with sixty points ahead of Lorenzo (45) and Rossi (33). Espagaro is in fourth as the top independent rider with twenty-eight points ahead of Pedrosa, Barbera, Dovizioso and Vinales in joint seventh, Laverty in ninth and Aleix Espargaro in tenth.
