Cal Crutchlow claimed his second career MotoGP victory in the Australian Grand Prix, as Marc Marquez crashed out of the lead and Valentino Rossi charged from 15th to second.

The LCR Honda rider grabbed the lead when Marquez crashed at Phillip Island’s Turn 4, and brought it home to win his second race in the last six, having ended a run of 35 years without a British winner at Brno in August.

Polesitter and newly-crowned champion Marquez looked to have the race in control, building gap nearing three seconds early.

Crutchlow eventually wrestled second place from Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro and Tech3 Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro on lap six, and took 0.7s out of Marquez’s lead over the next three laps.

The Spaniard responded with his personal best lap of the race, but then crashed at Turn 4, losing the front end of his Honda on lap 10 of the 28.

“I’m fine. Sorry to the team, I did mistake,” Marquez said aftet recording his first DNF of the season.

“I braked too late, and instead of going wide I tried to keep the line. I took a lot to risks to lead from the beginning.

“We must be happy, because we won the title, but of course we want to win more races.”

Seconds earlier, Rossi had taken second place from Aleix Espargaro at Turn 1 and, having started 15th, was 1.803s behind new leader Crutchlow.

From there, though, Crutchlow was untouchable.

He lapped relentlessly in the 1m29s barrier to gradually build a lead his lead over Rossi to more than three seconds for the first time with 12 laps remaining.

Crutchlow continued to extend his advantage and a mistake by Rossi at Turn 4 two laps later meant it became a seemingly-unassailable 5.589s.

There was no change at the front, and Crutchlow eventually won by 4.218s.

After recording his worst qualifying result in six years on Saturday, finishing second from 15th on the grid was a fine recovery for Rossi.

The Italian was 12th at the end of lap one, ninth on lap three and seventh on lap four, and continued his charge to take what became second from Aleix Espargaro moments before Marquez fell.

For the bulk of the race, it looked like Espargaro would complete the podium.

However he was reeled in by Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, and having resisted that charge was then caught by his Suzuki team-mate Maverick Vinales, who had moved up the order from 13th.

Vinales moved past Dovizioso and looked set to fight for third, until Espargaro came unstuck at Turn 4 with five laps to go.

Behind Vinales and Dovizoso, who fell to 3.848s behind the Spaniard at the flag, Pol Espargaro was fifth.

Jorge Lorenzo made good progress early, jumping from 12th up to eighth on the first lap, but was passed by Rossi on lap four and his progress thereafter was non-existent.

The outgoing champion finished a lonely sixth, losing ground to his team-mate in their fight for second in the championship.

Scott Redding won what was a mammoth, seven-rider fight for seventh, on his Pramac Ducati.

In his second start after an injury layoff, Tech3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith snatched eighth over the line from Redding’s team-mate Danilo Petrucci while local Jack Miller completed the top 10.

Miller clashed with Nicky Hayden at Turn 4 in the closing stages, after Ducati’s Hector Barbera crashed out of the fight at Turn 6.

Hayden remounted and crossed the line in 17th, while Australian Mike Jones grabbed 15th and the final point in his second MotoGP start with Avintia Ducati.

RESULTS:

Cal Crutchlow wins second MotoGP race after Marquez crashes