Lorenzo vanquishes all in MotoGP

Lorenzo took the lead at the start and was never headed as he cut the championship advantage of Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi, who completed a Yamaha 1-2.

Lorenzo jumped into the lead at the start while Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone ensured that both Ducati riders surged past pole man Marc Márquez.

Lorenzo held an advantage up front while team-mate Rossi, who made progress from eighth on the grid, muscled past Márquez before slipping by on both Ducati riders to move into second.

Rossi took fractions out of Lorenzo's lead, which was hovering at the 1.7s mark, but the Spaniard soon responded to extinguish any hopes of a lead battle.

Lorenzo ultimately secured a comfortable victory with Rossi pulling away from Dovizioso to take a safe second place.

Márquez recovered from his poor start – and running wide early on – to take fourth place after a frantic battle with Iannone, as the pair swapped positions several times on the same lap.

Bradley Smith took sixth spot for Tech 3, having kept a close watch on the battle between Márquez and Iannone.

Pol Espargaró claimed a lonely seventh, ahead of Yonny Hernández and Maverick Viñales, who was the sole Suzuki finisher after Aleix Espargaró retired due to a mechanical issue.

Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top 10 for Pramac Ducati. 

Dani Pedrosa made his return to MotoGP after missing three rounds but the Honda rider endured a troublesome race as he slid out of contention on the second lap.

He remounted but finished outside of the points down in 16th position. 

Several riders crashed out during the opening stages; Cal Crutchlow fell at Turn 6 while chasing Márquez while Stefan Bradl and Scott Redding also came to grief at the same corner.

Jack Miller was another crasher while Karel Abraham retired with a mechanical problem.