Rossi defeats Marquez in Catalunya

Valentino Rossi has won the Catalunya MotoGP after defeating arch-rival Marc Marquez in a late race battle.

The Italian fought back from a bad start, which left him eighth after Turn 1, to take the lead from Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on lap 7 of 25.

Rossi and Marquez then pulled away while Lorenzo faded through the field to fifth - then was punted off by Andrea Iannone when the pair spectacularly clashed under braking at the end of the back straight on lap 17.

Iannone takes out Lorenzo! #CatalanGP #MotoGP @andreaiannone29 @lorenzo99 pic.twitter.com/3CFVRkrcxa-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) June 5, 2016

The closing stages saw Rossi and Marquez battle head-to-head for victory for the first time since their infamous 2015 clashes, The Doctor making his winning pass into Turn 1 at the start of the penultimate lap.

Marquez's hopes ended when he ran slightly wide at Turn 7. The final lap began with the pair separated by 0.7s, after which Rossi remained mistake free to the chequered flag for his second win of the season.

Repsol Honda's Marquez was satisfied to regain the world championship lead, and reversed his number 93 on the slowdown lap in tribute to Moto2 star Luis Salom, who lost his life at the circuit on Friday.

Fittingly, given the atmosphere following Salom's tragic accident, Rossi and Marquez shook hands for the first time since their Sepang clash. The pair, plus third-place finisher Dani Pedrosa, then wore t-shits in tribute to Salom for the podium ceremony, which was without champagne.

Rossi, Marquez and Pedrosa wear t-shirts in memory of Luis Salom #CatalanGP #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/WqTc0MEgUZ-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) June 5, 2016

Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was six-seconds from victory, but able to break free from an early battle with Suzuki's Maverick Vinales. Vinales had an exciting first half of the grand prix, repeatedly swapping places with Pedrosa and then Lorenzo.

Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) led the satellite challenge in fifth and sixth, easily Crutchlow's best result of the season, with Andrea Dovizioso the top Ducati in seventh after Iannone's dramatic exit.

Alvaro Bautista put the Aprilia into an encouraging eighth place, with Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) and Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) completing the top ten.

Joining Lorenzo and Iannone on the DNF list were Bradley Smith (Tech 3) and Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki), who both pitted.

Marquez now holds a 10-point lead over Lorenzo and 22-point advantage over Rossi heading into Assen at the end of the month.

Catalan MotoGP:1.Valentino Rossi2.Marc Marquez3.Dani Pedrosa4.Maverick Vi?ales5.Pol Espargaro6.Cal Crutchlow7.Andrea Dovizioso8.Alvaro Bautista9.Danilo Petrucci10.Hector Barbera11.Jack Miller12.Stefan Bradl13.Eugene Laverty14.Tito Rabat15.Michele Pirro16.Scott Redding17.Yonny Hernandez
Aleix Espargaro
Jorge Lorenzo
Andrea Iannone
Bradley Smith

CLICK HERE for full results.

The handshake between Rossi and Marquez after the race #CatalanGP #MotoGP @ValeYellow46 @MarcMarquez93 pic.twitter.com/ebI4lVXJT2-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) June 5, 2016