Photo: motogp.com
Marc Marquez is the undisputed king of the Circuit of the Americas after winning his fourth race in Austin. After getting another pole position in Q2, MM93 shared the first row with Lorenzo and Rossi, but managed to get ahead of the pack early in the race, and was gone with the wind.
Lorenzo took an amazing start but ran wide in Turn 1, allowing Marquez to squeeze past. In a way, this was the race-winning pass for Marquez, who, with the open road ahead of him on his favorite track, slowly opened the gap and was impossible to catch by anyone.
Rossi looked like a sitting duck on the famous back straight of the CotA, as riders blitzed past him in a manner that looked almost impossible to believe. It appears that he had some issues with his bike, as it's quite uncommon to see Rossi so slow on a straight.
Things, however, unfolded even worse for the Italian, as he crashed out of the race at Turn 2 soon after lap three, thankfully walking away unscathed. It's the first time in 25 races that Rossi is not in the top five.
The list of riders who crashed and were back in the game includes Bradley Smith and Cal Crutchlow, Loris Baz, and Dani Pedrosa, who took out poor old Andrea Dovizioso in the process. Pedrosa would rejoin the race but would see himself forced to pull into the pits a few laps after the crash because his bike was too damaged.
Pedrosa crashed out of the blue, with the front end washing away from him as he was approaching a turn. His sliding bike hit Dovizioso's machine in the rear section, taking him down. Before getting back on his bike, Pedrosa took the time to apologize to Dovizioso, who looked truly disheartened. Also, after taking his bike back to the pit, Dovi's box was the first place Pedrosa went to, to discuss with Dovizioso about this most unfortunate event.
We remind you that Dovizioso was also bumped into last week, by his very teammate Andrea Iannone, who also crashed while being in a podium position. Making things worse in Argentina, the two Ducati riders crashed out of the race one turn before the finish.
With so many riders relegated to the lower positions on the track and clearly out of contention, it was natural to see the riders who usually are at the back of the charts earning points.
Vinales, however, was hardly helped by the crashes, as he looked strong throughout the whole weekend. He made mistakes that cost him the chance to a podium battle, but he made a rather short work of his teammate Aleix Espargaro and finished fourth, ahead of him.
The top ten included Scott Redding, Pol Espargaro, Ducati's test rider Pirro substituting for Petrucci, and with Hector Barbera ninth and Stefan Bradl's Aprilia in the top ten. Smith was only 17th and therefore out of the points zone, ending his record-making streak, while Eugene Laverty also enjoyed another point-scoring round with his 12th-best finish.
Three rounds in the 2016 MotoGP championship, Marquez leads the world standing with 66 points, leading from Jorge Lorenzo (45) and Rossi (33). Pol Espargaro is fourth with 28 points, followed by Pedrosa (27), Barbera (25), Dovizioso and Vinales (23), Laverty and Aleix Espargaro (21) for the top ten.
The next race is at Jerez in two weeks' time.
Rossi looked like a sitting duck on the famous back straight of the CotA, as riders blitzed past him in a manner that looked almost impossible to believe. It appears that he had some issues with his bike, as it's quite uncommon to see Rossi so slow on a straight.
Things, however, unfolded even worse for the Italian, as he crashed out of the race at Turn 2 soon after lap three, thankfully walking away unscathed. It's the first time in 25 races that Rossi is not in the top five.
Crashing in and out
The race at the Circuit of the Americas was not an easy one for all the riders. In fact, it would turn out that the American round had all the attributes of a crash fest, with the difference that many of the riders were able to rejoin the race.The list of riders who crashed and were back in the game includes Bradley Smith and Cal Crutchlow, Loris Baz, and Dani Pedrosa, who took out poor old Andrea Dovizioso in the process. Pedrosa would rejoin the race but would see himself forced to pull into the pits a few laps after the crash because his bike was too damaged.
Pedrosa crashed out of the blue, with the front end washing away from him as he was approaching a turn. His sliding bike hit Dovizioso's machine in the rear section, taking him down. Before getting back on his bike, Pedrosa took the time to apologize to Dovizioso, who looked truly disheartened. Also, after taking his bike back to the pit, Dovi's box was the first place Pedrosa went to, to discuss with Dovizioso about this most unfortunate event.
We remind you that Dovizioso was also bumped into last week, by his very teammate Andrea Iannone, who also crashed while being in a podium position. Making things worse in Argentina, the two Ducati riders crashed out of the race one turn before the finish.
With so many riders relegated to the lower positions on the track and clearly out of contention, it was natural to see the riders who usually are at the back of the charts earning points.
Vinales, however, was hardly helped by the crashes, as he looked strong throughout the whole weekend. He made mistakes that cost him the chance to a podium battle, but he made a rather short work of his teammate Aleix Espargaro and finished fourth, ahead of him.
The top ten included Scott Redding, Pol Espargaro, Ducati's test rider Pirro substituting for Petrucci, and with Hector Barbera ninth and Stefan Bradl's Aprilia in the top ten. Smith was only 17th and therefore out of the points zone, ending his record-making streak, while Eugene Laverty also enjoyed another point-scoring round with his 12th-best finish.
Three rounds in the 2016 MotoGP championship, Marquez leads the world standing with 66 points, leading from Jorge Lorenzo (45) and Rossi (33). Pol Espargaro is fourth with 28 points, followed by Pedrosa (27), Barbera (25), Dovizioso and Vinales (23), Laverty and Aleix Espargaro (21) for the top ten.
The next race is at Jerez in two weeks' time.
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