Jorge Lorenzo wins incident-packed race Down Under

Jorge Lorenzo’s MotoGP title defence remains alive after the Spaniard won an incident-packed Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, as championship leader Marc Marquez committed a rookie mistake and suffered a disastrous disqualification.

With tyre problems forcing riders to change bikes mid-race in a MotoGP first, the battle between the two-time world champion Lorenzo and Honda’s 20-year-old wunderkind fizzled out on the 14th lap when Marquez was shown the dreaded black flag for failing to pit in time.

A few laps prior, the pair narrowly averted catastrophe as Marquez emerged from the pit-lane to brush Lorenzo, who was charging up the inside on his Yamaha in a desperate bid to snatch back the lead under a cloudy sky at Phillip Island circuit.

Lorenzo snuck past, leaving a wobbling Marquez in his wake, and powered away to win the shortened race by nearly seven seconds from Honda rival Dani Pedrosa and third-placed teammate Valentino Rossi.

Lorenzo’s cool win under crushing pressure and chaotic race conditions breathed new life into his title defence, trimming Marquez’s lead to a more precarious 18 points with two races left in Montegi and Valencia.

“Today has been a crazy race,” the affable Spaniard said after celebrating his first win Down Under. “With this changeover of bikes in the middle, we practised a lot before the race. So that was one of the keys.