Marc Marqu꧒ez says he didn’t expect to see Jorge Lorenzo battling with the front-runners in ꦜJerez but felt his rival's pace and style became a key tool to his victory.

Marquez has taken a 12-point lead in the MotoGP riderꩵs’ world championship thanks to his second consecutive win of the year at Jerez f🌠ollowing his dominant display in the United States last month.

The Repsol Honda rider carved his way🌜 up to second in the opening stage🉐s behind early leader Lorenzo and concedes the Ducati rider’s riding style came as a shock finding his path to the front blocked.

Marquez says he was fighting the “old style of Jorge” and saw the opportunity to use it by getting past him early and allowing his rival to cause a gap to form between him and the rest – before the disaster clash between Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa saw all three tumble out൩ of the race.

“I was surprised about Lorenzo as it was like old sty♏le of Jorge,” Marquez said. “At the start, he was pushing a lot but he stopped Dani who was mไy main worry.

“This race he stopped Dani and I was able to overtake Dani, overtake Lorenzo and get away. I realised that it was nearly impossible ෴to overtake Lorenzo. He was braking so late and he was exitin▨g so well from the corners. But then I was a little bit patient.

“When I saw that his tyre started to drop, I thought now it’s time to lead the race and try to open ﷺa gap. I was able to open a gap, step by step.”

Marquez’s victory, coupled with the crashe♎s by key title rivals, sees the defending MotoGP world champion open up a useful points lead after just four races and entering the European stint of the campaign.

While delighted with the turnaround in recent results, the four-time MotoGP world champion says it wasn’t the perfect race and is wary of the pace his riꦑvals have produced at the Spanish track.

“I s𝓡truggled a little bit as we are missing something in the front and I want to try something tomorrow [at the Jerez test] because I crashed three times,” he said. “I’m missing something and I want to understand.

“With the other riders today crashing I’ve increase a lot the ad♐vantage, and this is good f𒉰or us, but as I said before Qatar, Johann this year will be strong, Suzuki will be in the podium, so more or less the prediction is there.

“I will say that Ducati’s will be strong because they were close in this circuit, so they will be 𝕴strong in the other parts of the championship. Only four ra🌟ces with many, many races to go.”

Marquez’s triumph marks his first victory at Jerez since 2014 with🀅 his win becoming the Repsol Honda riders’ first back-to-back successes sinc🐼e the Misano and Aragon races last year.