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Story highlights
Marc Marquez wins Spanish MotoGP at Jerez
Fourth straight win for reigning world champion
Valentino Rossi finishes in a fine second
Marquez leads world title race by 28 points
Marc Marquez held off a resurgent Valentino Rossi to win his fourth straight MotoGP race since start of the season with first victory Sunday at the Spanish circuit of Jerez.
The Repsol Honda rider is the first man since Australian great Mick Doohan in 1992 to win the opening four rounds of the season in motorcycling’s premier class and he was never headed after starting from pole.
He had built up a four second lead by lap 12, but a charging Rossi on his Yamaha had closed up the finish in Andalusia.
Seven-time world MotoGP champion Rossi was picking up his second runners-up spot of the season and held off Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa on the final corner.
Read: Marquez matches Agostini with hat-trick
Rossi’s teammate and two-time champion Jorge Lorenzo finished fourth.
Defending champion Marquez has a 28-point lead over Pedrosa in the title race after his 36th Grand Prix victory from just 100 starts.
“I’m really happy, it’s a different kind of victory, ” Marquez told the official MotoGP website.
“In the beginning I was able to open a gap and push. I know that Dani and Valentino are so strong at the end of the race so I pushed very hard at the start,” the 21-year-old revealed.
Read: Marquez: The new king of MotoGP’s Spanish empire
Rossi, who was winning his 149th podium finish in MotoGP, was delighted to be a factor again at Jerez, which is one of his favorite circuits.
“Since 2010 I have not been on the podium here, so it’s great to be back,” said the Italian.
Earlier, Finland’s Mika Kallio took the Moto2 race ahead of Switzerland’s Dominique Aegerter and Jonas Folger of Germany.
Italian Romano Fenati won the Moto3 race ahead of Spanish pair Efren Vazquez and Alex Rins.
