Marc Marquez takes a 33-point lead in the MotoGP standings after prevailing in a titanic battle for the win at Phillip Island as title rival Andrea Dovizioso struggled to 13th.
The early laps were a frantic affair, with Marc VDS Honda rider Jack Miller scything into the lead in front of his home crowd ahead of pole man Marquez, while behind Dovizioso dropped from 11th to 19th after running wide at the first corner on lap two.
Marquez soon found himself behind Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, while his satellite counterpart Johann Zarco made contact with the Honda rider at the Honda hairpin.
Zarco regrouped from that error and by lap seven was up to third, before carving past Marquez on the following tour at the Honda corner. Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi held firm at the front of the field.
A mistake from Rossi at the Honda corner on lap nine sent him back to fourh as Zarco, Marquez and Miller picked off the Italian, though he soon retaliated to clamber back onto the podium places.
At one stage, the lead group was an eight-rider battle, with the lead changing hands frequently until six laps from home when Marquez – who survived a slight brush with Rossi on lap 20 at the Souther Loop – made a crucial break after passing Vinales.
Zarco, Rossi, Vinales and Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone locked horns over the final podium places, giving Marquez the opportunity to open out his advantage to two seconds as the final lap began.
Marquez’s Championship rival Dovizioso was one of a handful of riders to go with the medium option rear, but struggled to make any inroads on the top 10 on it, and spent most of the races fending off the Spaniard’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa.
Marquez was offered a clear run to the line to take a crucial sixth win of the season, while Rossi and Vinales pipped Zarco – who secures top rookie honours in 2017 – to end the factory Yamaha team’s run of three races without a podium.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow got the upper hand on Iannone on the final lap to complete the top five, while Miller faded to seventh as his soft rear tyre lost grip. Alex Rins and the KTM duo of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith rounded out the top 10.
Dovizioso was set to salvage 11th from his disastrous afternoon, but had no traction exiting the final corner and was mugged by Ducati stablemate Scott Redding and Pedrosa to end the race 13th. Karel Abraham and Jorge Lorenzo took the last of the points.
Aleix Espargaro was the only retirement, after the Aprilia rider crashed out while fighting in the lead group at Turn 1 in the opening stages.
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