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Race report

Marquez caps perfect weekend with victory at Indianapolis

Repsol Honda rider extends championship lead with third win in America

Race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Repsol Media

Marc Marquez thrashed the opposition on is way to victory in today’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in a devastating display of speed at the famous Brickyard circuit with the Repsol Honda rider crossing the line over 3 seconds ahead of his teammate Dani Pedrosa. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo finished in third place with the reigning MotoGP world champion leading for the first third of the race but unable to match the sheer speed of Marquez who was untouchable in the second half of the race.

The race began with Lorenzo causing an upset on the YZR-M1 with the gutsy Spaniard muscling his way into the lead with Marquez being pushed into third with Pedrosa also making a good start. Behind the front three Bradley Smith leaped into 4th place ahead of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammate Cal Crutchlow while Go&Fun Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista was leading LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl. Nicky Hayden got off to a good start for the Ducati Team and was leading Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi for a time with Andrea Dovizioso following closely behind on the second Ducati Team GP13.

I am very happy to have taken another 25 points!

Marc Marquez

There was bad luck early on for Attack Performance Racing’s Blake Young who crashed out and not before long there was also misfortune for Randy De Puniet with the Power Electronics Aspar rider retiring leaving his teammate Aleix Espargaro leading the CRT battle. Within the first five laps things were heating up and Rossi was now passed Hayden and in pursuit of Smith who had been passed by Crutchlow, Bautista and Bradl. Within another few laps Rossi was on the back of Bradl and anxious to catch the top three riders with Lorenzo still leading the way.

Lorenzo was riding in his usual smooth style and continued to lead the Repsol Hondas up to the second third of the 27-lap race until Marquez came to life and overtook his teammate following some ragged riding and it wasn’t long before he lined up a pass on Lorenzo at turns one and two and the current championship leader didn’t look back and began to build on his lead while Lorenzo and Pedrosa were left to battle for second place. Meanwhile, the battle behind the top three was in full flow with Bautista catching and passing Crutchlow who wasn’t about to lose out on valuable points for 4th place while Stefan Bradl was falling off the pace somewhat and was being caught by Rossi who passed Smith as did Hayden and Dovizioso.

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Repsol Media

The positions at the front remained static for the second third of the race with Lorenzo unable to catch Marquez and Pedrosa falling off the Yamaha’s rear wheel. The main action however was behind the top three with Bautista locked in battle with Crutchlow and Rossi was now in pursuit after passing Bradl moving into the final third of the race. There was bad luck for Lukas Pesek on the Cam IodaRacing Project machine after the Czech Republic rider had to retire the machine. The fans were thoroughly entertained by the battle between Crutchlow, Bautista and Rossi moving into the dying stages of the race with Rossi right on their rear wheels.

There was much excitement in the final 5 laps with the battle for 4th ending with Rossi passing Crutchlow into 4th and Bautista nearly running into the rear of the British rider in the final turn while Hayden and Dovizioso also caused some drama on the final turn with the teammates battling to the end and Hayden coming off the better. Crossing the line, Marquez had stretched out his lead by over 3 seconds ahead of Lorenzo who had come under threat from Pedrosa in the final few laps and it wasn’t long before the factory Honda rider moved up the inside of Lorenzo into 2nd place and while this battle was settled, Marquez crossed the line to take his third win this season on American soil.

Speaking after his victory, Marquez was thrilled saying, “I am very happy to have taken another 25 points! I knew before we came here that this would be a good opportunity and I was able to take advantage of it. I felt very good throughout the weekend, and I think this has been my best GP overall since coming into the premier class. I was first in every session, so I couldn't ask for more. In the race I decided to follow Lorenzo and Pedrosa, trying to save my tyres at the start.

Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP

When I saw that I was feeling good and had less fuel in the tank, I tried to attack. In the end I was able to break away and have some fun sliding the bike around and enjoying how good the ride was! Now we head back to Europe, where we will try to continue working in the same way and see how many points we can pick up,” Marquez added.

Pedrosa was happy that he was able to find something extra at the end of the race. He said, “Today I gave all I had. I struggled to keep my energy up and I was forced to ride in a different way because of the pain I was suffering. It was a difficult race, because I was fighting a lot against the bike but in the end I was able to keep up my pace and take a good second place! In other conditions I'm sure we would have done better, but we did all that we could under the circumstances today and should draw that positive from the day.”

Lorenzo wasn’t pleased to lose out on second place but was still happy to be on the podium and he said, “I made a very good start and I had half a second advantage in the beginning of the race. I had a lot of hope because I knew I had a good pace but suddenly in the middle of the race Marc started to go faster and faster so it was impossible to win. I’m disappointed to not finish second, because in normal conditions without the drop in rear tire this would have been possible. I’m happy to be back on the podium at a track that’s not normally a good one for us.

I don’t feel perfect, I feel more tired than normal because I haven’t trained so much in the last two months because of the injuries. I felt tired at the end of the race and had some pain in the braking areas but I feel much better and in Brno and Silverstone I will be ok. I think from this moment we can only be better and better,” Lorenzo added.

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