Marc Marquez now has an unbroken winning streak of seven races on American tarmac – and he’s not done winning yet!
MotoGP Indianapolis Race Report
Once a champion, always a champion… or at least that’s Marc Marquez’s motto. After his big comeback in Germany, Marquez has done it again in Indianapolis, snatching another victory from Lorenzo by just 0.6 seconds. Honda have now celebrated their 700th MotoGP win, which is quite a record – but it’s Marquez who has proved himself to be a truly remarkable racer.
This is the third year that Marc Marquez stands on top of the Indianapolis podium. He has won every MotoGP race that he’s ever entered in the USA. Let’s just say that again, shall we? Marc Marquez has won every USA race since his MotoGP career began. That’s seven races on three totally different tracks. There’s something magic about Marquez when he gets on US tarmac – let’s hope that some of that magic follows him to Brno, because he’s going to need it if he wants to catch up on the other champions.
Jorge Lorenzo came in a strong second, after starting in third place on the grid. He pulled away early with Marquez, clashing constantly throughout the race with just a tiny gap separating him and his fellow Spaniard. It looked like yet another Lorenzo victory until the last three laps, when Marc Marquez saw his chance and took it – seeing off one of his most dangerous rivals.
Lorenzo wasn’t disappointed, knowing that Marquez is still 47 points away from threatening his position. He said: “I recovered four points on Vale and lost five points to Marc, but he’s still quite far behind in the championship…I am satisfied, let’s see what happens in the next race.” Lorenzo’s still got time to close the nail-biting 9 point gap between him and the Doctor.
Valentino Rossi acted out another epic battle in Indianapolis, this time with Dani Pedrosa, who is fully fit and raring to go after his injury troubles earlier in the season. After a podium finish in Germany, Pedrosa was keen to beat Rossi and climb up from seventh in the world standings. Starting from second on the grid, Pedrosa looked strong. But Rossi caught him up on lap ten, eventually slipping past him on the penultimate lap.
Pedrosa had to make do with fourth place, conceding that his pace was a little slower than the champions in front. He said: “The surprise was Valentino. I knew my pace was a little slower than Marc and Jorge’s, but after practice I thought I might be a little closer. However, Valentino made a big step forward as usual and we had to fight for the podium…”
Of course, the Doctor wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. With his 10th championship title looking more and more precarious, Rossi would have been desperate to make up precious points. He started from eighth, pushing hard to overtake the rest of the paddock and shake off Dani Pedrosa. His determination paid off with a third place finish, but he has a lot of work to do before he can celebrate.
Rossi commented: “At one moment Jorge was in front and I was fourth so I would have lost twelve points. I had to try at the maximum because these points for third are more important for me than for Dani. I gave my all and it was very difficult because this track, with this temperature and humidity is very demanding, but I‘m happy at the end because it was a good race and I had a good pace.” Fingers crossed that he keeps the pace up in the Czech Republic on August 16th.
Our British riders did us proud again, especially Bradley Smith. Smith took the coveted title of top satellite rider again, and is still an impressive 5th in the world standings. His great performance was almost hampered by technical difficulties on the starting grid, making this an even sweeter victory. He said: “I have to be happy with the result today…I actually began the race with no launch control in first gear as I had changed to second just before the lights went out. Yet despite that, it was better than I expected and I won’t be making that mistake again in Brno!”
Cal Crutchlow did well, too, considering that he also suffered a bike-related mishap. He was unable to brake on turn two, forcing him to go wide. He finished in eighth, not a position to sniff at! He said: “The race itself wasn’t too bad, I just had a very bad start. I lost so many places at the second corner, because when I grabbed the brake lever there wasn’t enough heat in the brakes to stop…of course I did my best to recover.” Will his determination pay off on August 16th? We’ll have to wait and see.
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Now we’re back in the swing of things, remind yourself of the championship so far with our race reports on Germany, Assen, Catalunya, Italy, France, Spain, Argentina, The Americas and Qatar.
Is Marquez dabbling in some kind of voodoo? Is Lorenzo ready to top the table? And does the Doctor have it in him to fight tooth and nail for his 10th title? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
Photo courtesy of www.motogp.com
