Spaniard Marc Marquez won his seventh straight race on Sunday as he took the honours in a thrilling Catalunya MotoGP ahead of Italian Valentino Rossi and Honda teammate and compatriot Dani Pedrosa.

The runaway championship leader and defending champion survived a furious onslaught from Pedrosa over the final two laps after seizing the lead from Rossi who led for much of the middle part of the race.

He extends his points tally to a perfect 175 while Rossi stays second on 117 after going past Pedrosa on the final lap when the Spaniard touched wheels with Marquez.

The final laps of the race were run under thunder and lightening although race officials declined to halt the race.

Meanwhile Spain’s Alex Marquez took out the Moto3 race.

The 18-year-old, younger brother of MotoGP championship leader Marc, riding a Honda, finished ahead of Italian KTM rider Enea Bastianini and another Spanish Honda rider, Efren Vazquez.

Australia’s Jack Miller, on a KTM, was fourth and retains the overall world championship lead by seven points from Italian KTM team-mate Romano Fenati, after seven races.