Jerez de la Frontera, Spain - It was one for the history books as Valentino Rossi claimed his 113th career Grand Prix victory and his 87th in the premier class, while South African Brad Binder put in the ride of a lifetime to take his first Grand Prix win - after starting from the back of the grid!
MOTOGP
Through out the weekend Rossi, his factory Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Honda's defending world champion Marc Marquez were in a league of their own, filling the top three slots in almost every practice session and lining up next to each other on the front row of the grid.
Races can't be won in the first corner, but they can certainly be lost. The crowded erupted as The Doctor pulled a superb start to lead into Turn 1, with Jorge Lorenzo right behind and works Honda duo Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa within touching distance.
Pedrosa slotted into third midway through the first lap, as the Yamaha began to stretch their lead. Marquez tried to pass Pedrosa into Turn 6 but was forced to run wide as his line was blocked. Lorenzo tried a similar pass on Rossi through Turn 9 - with similar results - as Marquez, who had muscled his way past his team-mate, starting to claw back the deficit.
Few of the fans even noticed Eugene Laverty's incredible start, slicing his privateer Ducati through the field from 15th on the grid to eighth overall (and leading the Independent class) by lap three, while Ducati Team rider Andrea Dovizioso chased the works Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro for fifth with Maverick Vinales on the second Ecstar Suzuki right on his tail.
With the leaders all lapping in the mid 1m40s, Rossi soon slowly stretched his lead to more than a second as Marquez looked for a way past Lorenzo. On lap 10 Dovizioso's race ended early yet again as the Desmosedici went sick and he had to tour back to the pits to retire.
But nobody was able to match Rossi's pace as the gap grew to two seconds; Lorenzo was forced to concentrate on fending off repeated challenges from Marquez, while Espargaro - in some of the best form of his career - was all over Pedrosa like a rash.
Meanwhile, the battle for seventh produced some thrilling racing with Pol Espargaro (Yamaha Tech 3) leading the group ahead of Laverty, Andrea Iannone on the second Ducati Team bike and Honda privateer Cal Crutchlow.
Soon after the halfway point Lorenzo broke away from Marquez and opened up a one second lead on the Honda rider. Marquez had chosen to run winglets on his Honda which helped keep the front down but also ran the risk of overheating the front tyre.
With ten laps to go, Lorenzo finally began to close in on Rossi; the gap narrowed from three seconds to two and continued to close by a couple of seconds a lap - until Rossi responded by again dropping into the low 1m41s. As the gap opened up again, Lorenzo seemed resigned to settling for a valuable points haul, while Marquez also continued to drop back, his chances of a home victory long gone as he found himself over five second behind Lorenzo.
After a terrible start Iannone finally got past Pol Espargaro and ran away with seventh, while Laverty and Hector Barbera rounded out the top 10.
MOTO2
He may have had to fight in the opening laps, but once Sam Lowes was ahead he was untouchable, in a race where the top nine were all Kalex-mounted.
Jonas Folger shot off the front row of the grid to grab the hole shot as the field jostled and bumped into Turn 1. Everybody made it safely through the first corner, only for for Xavier (Tech 3) and Ratthapark Wilairot to crash out at Turn 5. Each was taken to the medical centre where Wilairot was diagnosed with cranial trauma and taken to a local hospital.
Folger continued to up the pace with Simone Corsi (Speed Up) unable to sty with him and sliding off at Turn 2. Nevertheless, try as he might, Folger was unable to hold off Lowes who took the lead midway through lap two.
Rins got the start he needed from seventh on the grid and put a hard move on Franco Morbidelli to get up into third, but Johann Zarco didn't and was battling down in 12th in the opening laps.
The leading four were all within touching distance, Lowes unable to shake off Folger as they traded fastest sectors. Their speed was brutal and the top three quickly pulled a gap of a second over Morbidelli.
Lap times were quick but the conditions caught many out as Alex Marquez crashed early at Turn 2, Luca Marini slid off at Turn 13 at the end of lap four and Sandro Cortese's front row start ended in the gravel at Turn 2 on lap five.
Danny Kent crashed and remounted at Turn 6 as Axel Pons was another victim of Turn 13 - all within the first six laps.
There were no such issues for the leading three as they maintained their pace in the mid 1m43s, Rins dropping back slightly towards half distance. Morbidelli was having a lonely ride in fourth, but fellow Lorenzo Baldassarri was steadily closing the two-second gap.
With 16 laps remaining, Lowes and Folger had opened up a second on local hero Rins. They were were taking radically different lines around the circuit, but the gap remained constant.
By lap 13 Baldassarri was with Morbidelli and challenging for fourth, but Morbidelli responded by upping his pace to pull half a second ahead of his compatriot.
Lowes continued to push ahead at the front of the race, his Kalex bucking and weaving underneath him as he extended his advantage over Folger to near a second by lap 17. Each time Lowes had a moment Folger would up his pace and continue harassing Lowes, trying to push him over the limit, but to no avail.
Further down the order there were great rides from the like of Miguel Oliveira who battled with Tom Luthi for sixth, while Zarco found his rhythm and was able to work his way up to the top 10. Disaster struck for Oliveira on lap 21 as he slid off at Turn 4, his bike tumbling through the gravel trap.
Zarco eventually got past Luthi to move into sixth with four laps to go, but the leading five too were far ahead for even the reigning Moto2 world champion - until a late fall from Baldassari promoted him to fifth.
Lowes came home more than three seconds ahead of Folger for his first win of 2016 and only the second of his Moto2 career, while Rins completed the podium with a steady ride to third - although his bike went sick on the final lap and he had to ask Zarco for help getting back to the pits.
Morbidelli took his best race result of the year so far in fourth, ahead of Zarco, as Takaaki Nakagami, Dominique Aegerter, Luis Salom (SAG Team) and Speed Up Rider Xavier Simeon rounded out the top 10
MOTO3
An impossible charge through the field saw Binder take his first Grand Prix win after starting last. After qualifying Binder's works KTM was found to be running non-homologated ECU software and his qualifying times were disallowed, which meant he had to start from the back of the grid
Francesco Bagnaia got a great start on his Mahindra to lead into Turn 1, while Niccolo Antonelli was forced to start from pit lane due to an issue on the grid, behind Binder, who had already begun to slice his way through the field.
Turn 6 claimed both Fabio Quartararo (KTM) and Jorge Martin (Mahindra) on the first lap, while Honda privateer Jorge Navarro had taken control of the race with Bagnaia and Nicolo Bulega (KTM) tucking in behind him in an attempt to break away from the pack.
By the start of lap three Binder was up from 15th from 35th, and two laps later he posted the fastest lap of the race, less than two tenths slower than his own lap record for this circuit, set in 2015, as he closed in on the group battling for fourth.
With 18 laps to go Bulega slid up the inside of Navarro to take the lead, but his size worked against him (at 1.8 metres and 63kg the 16-year-old is one of the biggest riders in the class) and Navarro was able to take the lead back at Turn 1 on the following lap.
The battle at the front was exciting, but Binder's charge was awe-inspiring as he moved into the top 10 after just six laps, seeming to gain a place on almost every corner. Before a third of the race was gone, Binder was fourth and leading the chasing group.
With 15 laps left to close the 3.7-second gap, he was reeling off a steady flow of mid-1m47s laps while the three riders battling for the lead were slowing each other down to the low 1m48s - so much so, that on lap 11 Binder made up more than a second, closing to less than 1.5 seconds adrift.
Meanwhile the fight for fifth was equally intense as Joan Mir (KTM), Enea Bastianini (Honda) and Philipp Oettl (KTM) traded places on almost every lap.
On lap 14 Binder moved into third, and soon after into second as Bagnaia ran wide at Turn 1. The leading group immediately tightened around him, but Binder wasn't fazed, pushing his way into the lead at Turn 6 on lap 18.
With a clear track ahead, Binder began to open up a lead as Navarro and Bagnaia diced for second, but with three laps to go Bulega struck back at Turn 6, slamming his way into second, but Bagnaia and Navarro responded as all three traded places.
The gap grew to an astonishing 3.4 seconds as Binder became the first ever South African to win a lightweight class race, extending his championship lead to 15 points over Navarro.
The fight for second, however, came down to the drag to the line after an incredible move by Bulega into Turn 13 on the last lap that scored him second by half a tenth and a maiden podium with Bagnaia notching up his second podium of the year in third.
Navarro was forced to settle for fourth, while Jakub Kornfeil (Honda) got the best of the battlec for fifth, ahead of Mir, Romano Fenati (KTM), Bastianini, Jules Danilo (Honda) and Oettl.