Marc Marquez fails to dial his MotoGP win streak up to 11

Dani Pedrosa, right, made it 11 straight wins for the Repsol Honda Team on the season after he passed Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo with 17 laps to go at the Masaryk circuit in Brno, Czech Republic. Pedrosa’Show more

BRNO, Czech Republich // All the talk in the build-up to Sunday's MotoGP Czech Grand Prix focussed on whether Marc Marquez could become the first rider to win 11 races in a row in motorcyle racing's top class.

But he made a different kind of history, finishing fourth at Brno to mark the first time in his career in MotoGP that he failed to finish in the top three.

The Honda rider’s streak came to an end at 10, but the Japanese team had the consolation of making it 11 wins in a row when Marquez’s teammate, Dani Pedrosa, won the race ahead of Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha.

In what has become a common theme, Marquez got off to a poor start from pole position, dropping to sixth place.

Lorenzo soon settled down at the front, followed by Pedrosa, who overtook him on the sixth lap. Lorenzo never really got close enough to fight back.

“I didn’t plan the race in this way, but fortunately, Jorge opened a gap immediately, so I had to change my plan and then push to the limit,” Pedrosa said.

“I kept my rhythm until the end, but in the end I struggled with my rear grip and was not able to go out strong in the corners.

Pedrosa, 28, won by 0.410 seconds.

“Finally we beat Marc, but unfortunately it wasn’t me, it was Dani this time,” Lorenzo said.

“After two laps, I started feeling not as well as in the first laps and Dani cut me and passed me ... and went away. The bike wasn’t so bad at the end of the race, so I tried, pushed to the limit to cut him, but it was too late.”

Marquez, 21, moved up to third after a few laps, but instead of narrowing the gap on the two leaders, he found himself under heavy pressure from Valentino Rossi.

Shrugging off a heavy crash in Saturday’s practice in which he injured the little finger on his left hand, Rossi, who has won five premier-class races in Brno, breezed past Marquez midway through the race.

He finished more than five seconds ahead of the championship leader for his 190th podium finish in all classes of motorcycling grand prix.

“I was able to do a good race, I’m happy, I had a good pace and it’s another podium,” Rossi said.

“It was a great pleasure to beat Marc one time.”

Marquez still comfortably leads the overall standings with 263 points and seven races remaining.

Pedrosa, his Honda teammate, is second with 186 and Rossi is third on 173.

In Moto2, Spanish rider Esteve Rabat took his fifth victory of the season to stretch his overall lead the class, and Alexis Masbou of France won the Moto3 category for his maiden victory.

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