BRNO: Honda’s Marc Marquez claimed his 50th career race win with victory at the Czech MotoGP on Sunday after the race had originally been delayed by 45 minutes due to rain.

Spain’s defending champion beat Ducati’s Italian Andrea Dovizioso by 2.4sec to extend his advantage at the top of the riders’ standings to 63 points with his sixth triumph of the season.

“I was really concentrating from the beginning because there was some wet patches on turn one but I decided to start and keep my rhythm,” Marquez, 26, told broadcaster BT Sport. “I saw ‘Dovi’ was behind me and I kept pushing and pushing and pushing. I am very happy, it was a crazy weekend.”

Australian Jack Miller pipped Alex Rins to third spot for his second podium of the campaign in a race cut by one lap due to adverse weather conditions.

“This is definitely the better one (podium), it was nice to fight at the end,” the 24-year-old Millar said. “I saw Rins’ rear tyre was spinning so I just bided my time, waited and waited and he was really struggling.”

Eight-time world champion Valentino Rossi was sixth and trails Marquez by 110 points in the overall standings.

Rins had accused fellow countryman Marquez of having ‘no respect’ for other riders after coming together with the five-time world champion during Saturday’s qualifying.

Suzki’s Rins was angered by what he saw as Marquez altering his line and making contact with him during the second session of the day.

His team had also filed a complaint against Marquez echoing their rider’s comments but race organisers decide against taking further action.

Earlier in the day, Marc’s brother Alex also made the most of pole position to dominate the Moto2 to register his fifth win of the season.

The Kalex rider, who was on hand to embrace Marc after his MotoGP win, now heads the Moto2 championship standings on 161 points, 33 clear of his Swiss team-mate Thomas Luthi.

In Moto3, Aron Canet won his second race of the season to retake the championship lead.

The Spanish KTM rider, who started sixth on the grid, heads the standings by three points from Honda’s Lorenzo Dalla Porta, who finished second in this 10th leg of the season.

The 11th Grand Prix of the 19-race season takes place in Austria on Aug 11, a circuit where Marc Marquez has never won.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2019