Tuesday 11 August: For the third year in a row Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) claimed victory at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in the MotoGP™ class.
Marc Marquez maintains
his incredible record on US soil with victory at the Indianapolis GP
after a race long battle with Jorge Lorenzo.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez made it five wins
in a row (2x Moto2™, 3x MotoGP™) at the legendary Indianapolis Motor
Speedway after an epic race long duel with Jorge Lorenzo (+0.688s) on
the Movistar Yamaha. Championship leader Valentino Rossi (+5.278s)
maintained his 100% podium record this season to finish in third, and
remain on top of the standings by nine points.
After the Moto3™ and Moto2™ races were declared wet earlier in the
day, conditions had improved by the time the MotoGP™ riders took to the
grid and luckily, apart from a few spots of rain, it remained dry
throughout the race. It was Lorenzo who would lead into the first corner
from pole man Marquez and it wouldn’t take long for these two to break
away at the front of the field, opening up a second gap by the end of
lap 6. The 68,000 fans present at the ‘Brickyard’ then bore witness to
some incredible riding between the two Spaniards, as lap after lap
Marquez ominously stalked Lorenzo.
The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Marquez bided his time, sitting
behind Lorenzo and studying his strengths and weaknesses before finally
making his move with just three laps to go into turn 1. Lorenzo had no
response and Marquez pulled the pin to cross the line over half a second
ahead of his compatriot, taking Honda’s 700th GP victory in the
process. It was also the 9th race in a row that Marquez has won on US
Soil and the first time he has achieved back-to-back victories this
season.
Rossi started from 8th on the grid but after a sensational opening
lap he was up into fourth and hunting down Pedrosa for the final podium
spot. The Italian was made to rue his poor Qualifying performance, as
while he could match the pace of Marquez and Lorenzo at the front, he
could not make any meaningful dent in the gap to the leaders. Rossi
finally managed to overtake Pedrosa into turn 1 on lap 18, although the
diminutive Spaniard was having none of it and after recovering he
managed to re-take third, setting up a dramatic last lap showdown. Rossi
had the advantage heading into the last lap but Pedrosa overtook him
into turn 1. ‘The Doctor’ fought back immediately with an aggresive move
into turn 2 and made it stick, managing to hold on to cross the line
0.181s ahead of Pedrosa (+6.147s).
Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+21.528s) was a further 15 seconds back
in fifth as he managed to hold off a hard-charging Bradley Smith
(+21.751s) on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 towards the end of the race. The
Italian, celebrating his 26th Birthday, eventually crossed the line
just 0.223s ahead of the Brit.
Smith, starting from 9th on the grid, once again enjoyed a brilliant
start and found himself as high as 5th after the first few corners.
Unfortunately he would run wide at turn 10 on the first lap and be
forced to fight his way back through the field. He had to settle for
sixth. His teammate Pol Espargaro was a further 8.627s further back in
seventh after he was involved in a hard-fought battle with CWM LCR
Honda’s Cal Crutchlow. The British rider had dropped down to 11th on the
opening lap after almost clipping the back of Smith into turn 1. He
managed to claw his way back through the pack, only to come across the
defiant Espargaro. Both riders repeteadly overtook each other before
they made contact on the straight on the penultimate lap. Crutchlow came
off worse from the clash and had to settle for eighth, eventually
crossing the line 1.2s behind the Spaniard.
Ducati Team's Andrea Dovizioso also ran wide on the first lap (turn
2) and found himself having to rejoin the race in last place. The
Italian recovered brilliantly and fought back to finish in ninth ahead
of the Octo Pramac Racing Ducati of Danilo Petrucci, who completed the
top ten.
The Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR’s of Maverick Viñales and Aleix
Espargaro were 11th and 14th respectively, with Scott Redding on the EG
0,0 Marc VDS Honda finishing in 13th.
Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera took the Open class victory in 15th
ahead of local Hero Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) in 16th and his
teammate Eugene Laverty in 19th.
Stefan Bradl finished in 20th on his debut for the Aprilia Racing
Team Gresini while CWM LCR Honda’s Jack Miller was the only rider to
crash out of the race as he fell foul of turn 6 on lap 9.
All of this means that Rossi (195pts) remains on top of the MotoGP™
World Championship standings, although his lead over Jorge Lorenzo
(186pts) in second has been cut to just 9 points, with Marquez (139pts)
56 points behind Rossi in third.
Moto2:Rins takes sensational victory
Alex Rins claims his first Moto2™ victory in dramatic fashion as Johann Zarco extends his lead in the championship standings.
Paginas Amarillas HP40’s rookie Alex Rins
took his first Moto2™ race win ahead of Ajo Motorsports Johann Zarco
(+0.482s) and Franco Morbidelli (+0.888s) on the Italtrans Racing Kalex
in what was one of the most exciting races of the season.
The race was declared wet but with the track drying, the majority of
riders decided to start on slicks and it was a fascinating first few
laps as they tried to adjust to the conditions. Once things had settled
down there was an incredible battle at the front between Rins, Rabat,
Zarco and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten).
Each rider took turns at the front of the field as fans were treated
to a spectacular display of aggressive overtaking in what was more
reminiscent of a Moto3™ race. It would take until the penultimate lap
for Rins to secure the win after Zarco had ran wide, taking Aegerter
with him, to give the Spaniard some breathing space at the front.
Rins eventually crossed the line almost half a second ahead of
championship leader Zarco to take his 9th career GP victory
(8xMoto3™, 1xMoto2™), with Morbidelli coming on strong towards the end
of the race and taking advantage of Aegerter running wide to steal third
and secure his first career Moto2™ podium.
Aegerter, fresh from his podium at the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race,
was battling at the front for long parts of the race before missing out
on the podium by 0.406s as he had to settle for fourth. Rabat (+2.963)
took a battling fifth after a duel with Morbidelli that must have
brought back memories of their last corner crash at the German GP last
time out.
Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten) was sixth, with AGR
Teams Axel Pons recovering from an earlier crash in Warm Up to take
seventh. Xavier Simeon (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2), Takaaki Nakagami
(Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) and Alex Marquez (Paginas Amarillas HP40)
completed the top ten.
Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes crashed out while in 6th at Turn 15 with
just 5 laps to go, after the British rider had fought his way back into
contention for the podium. Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Raceline Malaysia)
was also in contention for a top 6 finish when he crashed out on the
final lap, while Mika Kallio, who had started from the front row, also
went down after contact with Lowes on lap 11.
There were also DNF’s for Tech 3’s debutant Xavi Vierge, Randy
Krummenacher, Ratthapark Wilairot, Sandro Cortese and Julian Simon who
had actually led the race at the start.
All this means that Zarco (199pts) has extended his lead in the
Moto2™ World to 71 points, with Rins (128pts) leapfrogging Rabat
(125pts) into second.
Moto3: Loi takes maiden victory
Belgian Livio Loi takes his first Moto3™ win as rain causes chaos at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix.
RW Racing GP’s Loi made history as he became
the first Belgian rider to win in the lightweight class after taking
victory in a rain-affected race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Loi
finished 38.860s ahead of second placed John McPhee on the SAXOPRINT RTG
Honda, with Schedl GP Racing’s Phillip Oettl (+57.781s) claiming the
last podium spot a further 17-seconds back. Championship leader Danny
Kent was caught out by the weather conditions and eventually crossed the
line in 21st.
The formbook was thrown out of the window before the race began as a
heavy shower meant that it was declared wet. All of the riders lined up
on the grid on wet tyres before Livio Loi, Jules Danilo, Andrea Migno
and McPhee decided to switch to slicks before the race, with Loi the
only rider to make the decision in time to start from his original grid
position while the others had to start from Pit Lane.
This proved a masterstroke as the rain stopped as the lights went out
and the track dried rapidly, with riders pouring into the pits to
change to slicks from the end of the very first lap. Loi managed to take
the lead on lap four and never looked back, managing his lead
perfectly. McPhee and Oettl also rapidly made their way through the
field and for the majority of the race they were the only two riders not
to be a lap down on the leader Loi.
While the rain returned with a few laps to go, it was not heavy
enough to make a difference to the result, and Loi went on to take his
first career Moto3™ victory by a massive margin. The victory would have
been made even sweeter by the fact that the Belgian was forced to miss
the race at Indianapolis last year after he had been released from his
contract with the Marc VDS team at the German GP.
McPhee’s second placed finish came after he had qualified down 18th
place and it was his first career Moto3™ podium, in a season that has
proven rather tricky for the Scotsman. It was also Phillip Oettl’s first
Moto3™ podium finish too, just 19 years and 2 months after his father
Peter Oettl’s last GP win at Mugello in 1996.
Sky Racing Team VR46’s Romano Fenati (+1’15.296) finished in fourth,
17 seconds further back from Oettl, with Isaac Viñales filling in for
the injured Ana Carrasco on the RBA Racing Team KTM taking fifth spot.
Enea Bastianini managed to close the gap on leader Kent in the
standings by 10 points to 56 after he crossed the line in 6th on the
Gresini Racing Team Moto3 Honda. The Italian coming out on top of an
excellent battle with Niccolo Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold) in seventh,
Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) in eighth and Jorge Navarro (Estrella
Galicia 0,0) who finished in ninth.
Mapfre Team Mahindra’s Jorge Martin completed the top ten in a race
that saw his teammate Francesco Bagnaia given a ride through penalty for
a jump start before crashing out at turn 4 on lap 14. Efren Vazquez had
earlier topped Warm Up on his Leopard racing Honda, but also crashed
out at turn 9 on lap 16.
Leopard Racing's Kent was a one of a number of top riders to be
caught out by the weather conditions and be forced to pit to change to
slicks during the race. With only one bike per rider in Moto3™ the
process of physically changing the tyres and rejoining the race took on
average just under two minutes, which is why so many riders found
themselves so far back behind the leader after their stops. Unlike the
man who started second on the grid, Red Bull KTM Ajo's Miguel Oliveira
(15th), poleman Kent was not able to salvage any championship points and
eventually crossed the line in 21st.
The result means the Danny Kent (190) still leads the Moto3™ World
Championship standings despite his first non-points scoring finish of
the season, but his advantage has been cut to 56 points by second-placed
Enea Bastianini.