Marquez wins thrilling Australian MotoGP

Marc Marquez has won a thrilling Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island after an action-packed lead battle dominated the race.

The Honda rider held his nerve in the early stages, keeping himself towards the front of the race in an eight-rider leading pack before sprinting clear with six laps remaining.

With his chasers busy fighting among themselves, Marquez extended his lead at the front of the race to break the tow with four laps remaining, going on to win by more than 1.5s.

A lightning start from Jack Miller saw the Australian move into the lead at the Southern Loop on the opening lap, holding a small advantage until being mugged by both Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi after four laps.

Miller valiantly held on for the first two-thirds of the race until his rear tyre gave up and could do little more than hold on to the coat tails of those ahead.

An early mistake from Andrea Dovizioso saw the Ducati rider drop to 20th at the start of lap two, and while he had the pace of the leaders throughout the race the early damage proved too much.

The Italian spent much of the race battling with Dani Pedrosa for 11th place, before trailing home a lowly 13th after dropping two places within sight of the flag, and important championship points to Marquez.

The Spaniard only hit the front of the race with seven laps to run, prompting Rossi to immediately put a move on Vinales for second as he tried to stay in touch with the championship leader.

Vinales lost another spot when Zarco rode around the outside of the Yamaha at the first corner on the following lap, dropping Vinales to seventh and allowing the front four to inch their way clear of fifth-placed Miller.

An aggressive Andrea Iannone further slowed the battle for second, allowing Vinales and Cal Crutchlow to rejoin.

Rossi clung on for second while Vinales won the drag race to the line for third over Zarco with Crutchlow fifth.

Jack Miller hung on to seventh behind Iannone while Australian substitute Broc Parkes took the flag in 22nd.

His sixth win of the year, victory moves Marquez 33-points clear of Dovizioso with two rounds remaining, and could wrap up the title next weekend at the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang.

Race results: Australian Grand Prix

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	40’49.772
2	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+1.799
3	25	Maverick VIÑALES	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+1.826
4	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	+1.842
5	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda	Honda	+3.845
6	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+3.871
7	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	+5.619
8	42	Alex RINS	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+12.208
9	44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+16.251
10	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+16.262
11	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	OCTO Pramac Racing	Ducati	+21.652
12	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+21.668
13	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	+21.692
14	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Pull&Bear Aspar Team	Ducati	+26.110
15	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Ducati Team	Ducati	+26.168
16	53	Tito RABAT	SPA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	+26.252
17	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Pull&Bear Aspar Team	Ducati	+36.377
18	76	Loris BAZ	FRA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	+39.654
19	22	Sam LOWES	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	+40.400
20	8	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	+45.901
21	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	OCTO Pramac Racing	Ducati	+48.768
22	23	Broc PARKES	AUS	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	+57.711
DNF	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	20 Laps

Championship points: After Round 16

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	269
2	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	236
3	Maverick VIÑALES	SPA	219
4	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	188
5	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	174
6	Johann ZARCO	FRA	138
7	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	117
8	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	111
9	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	103
10	Jonas FOLGER	GER	84
11	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	70
12	Jack MILLER	AUS	65
13	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	62
14	Scott REDDING	GBR	61
15	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	60
16	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	49
17	Alex RINS	SPA	46
18	Loris BAZ	FRA	45
19	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	30
20	Tito RABAT	SPA	29
21	Hector BARBERA	SPA	25
22	Bradley SMITH	GBR	20
23	Michele PIRRO	ITA	18
24	Mika KALLIO	FIN	11
25	Sam LOWES	GBR	5
26	Katsuyuki NAKASUGA	JPN	4
27	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	1
28	Takuya TSUDA	JPN	0
29	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	0
30	Broc PARKES	AUS	0