Marquez blames rival for Lorenzo pile-up

MARC MARQUEZ tightened his grip on the MotoGP championship as team-mate Jorge Lorenzo crashed out and took three big hitters with him in the Catalan GP.

Repsol Honda rider Lorenzo lost the front of his bike on the second lap and took out Marquez’s main rival Andrea Dovizioso along with Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales.

Lorenzo held his hands up after yesterday’s horror crash in Spain, but Marquez later laid the blame at Dovizioso’s feet.

“Of course people will say Lorenzo was out of control but it’s not actually out of control, it was unlucky,” said Marquez.

“I overtook Dovi, Dovi went out of the line, Vinales was out and Jorge went in the correct line but lost the front.

“It was unlucky for the others but when I was behind Dovi he slowed down a lot and I released the brakes and went in because I was just close to hitting him too.

“I went in and luckily for me I got through.”

The drama unfolded as the field fell into place after the opening lap where Dovizioso made a blistering start from the second row to lead into the first corner. While pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo dropped back to ninth, Marquez slotted into third behind Vinales, but wasted little time passing the Yamaha.

Marquez had just hit the front on lap two when the chaos erupted behind him as Lorenzo careered into Yamaha ace Vinales and Ducati star Dovizioso.

Rossi had just tried to pass Danilo Petrucci and was running wide and ended up getting tangled with Lorenzo’s machine.

From there, Marquez had an easy run to the chequered flag as Quartararo began a steady climb back up the order with the rookie snatching second for his first MotoGP podium.

Petrucci backed up his win at Mugello a fortnight ago with a third-place finish.

After claiming his 74th GP race win, Marquez stretched his points lead to 37.

While the finger pointing rumbled on last night, Dovizioso refused to wade into the row and said: “I believe we could have been contenders for sure.

“I prefer not to comment about the incident, but the race still was entirely up for grabs at that point.”