Marc Marquez will be offered US citizenship if he carries on like this…
Americas GP race report
To absolutely no-one’s surprise, Marc Marquez was on fire at the Americas GP, taking his 10th consecutive win on US soil. After a very brief early challenge from the reigning champion Lorenzo, Marquez pulled out from the pack and showed the old timers how it’s done.
By the time Marquez crossed the line, he’d opened up a cavernous gap of over 6 seconds! There’s something a little bit magic about Marquez when he’s on American tarmac, and we can’t just put it down to his choice of a soft-medium tyre combination.
The golden boy himself didn’t take all the credit: “This is a circuit that I like, one of my favourite, but there were some unknowns here because just before the race we decided to run the soft front tyre. In the end the team advised me very well…I have to thank them all, as well as the Michelin technician.”
As the young Spaniard rode off into the sunset, there was no Valentino Rossi to chase him down. In a shocking twist of fate, the most veteran rider in the paddock crashed out after only 2 laps.
This is the first time Rossi has crashed out of a race since Aragon in 2014, ending a long 25-race streak of point scoring. This unexpected outcome raised a collective cringe from Vale’s fans. He’s now third on the table, with just half of his rival Marquez’s points.
When he was interviewed after the race, Rossi seemed to be looking on the bright side: “It’s a shame because we lost some points in the championship and also because we could make a good race. The positive side is that we are strong and very fast, so we will be ready for Jerez.”
I know it hurts, Rossi fans. But take the lead from the Doctor himself and put those tissues away. Every race is a new start!
With Rossi out, Jorge Lorenzo represented Yamaha on the podium with second place. After a Warm Up crash and still haunted by a DNF in Argentina, Lorenzo was happy just to finish.
The champion defended second place against the Ducati pair and kept his cool, even with braking problems which could have slowed him down. This was a remarkable ride for Lorenzo, showing his expertise and focus on a difficult weekend.
He explained his achievement: “It was really important to finish the race and get 20 points after crashing at high speed in the morning…I was fast enough to stay in second place and finish the race. You could see it was difficult to stay on the bike with a lot of crashes. Today the important thing was to finish and I did it.”
Andrea Iannone did Ducati proud in the Americas GP with a third place finish – much needed after his disastrous race in Argentina.
The last race’s Ducati crash cost Iannone 3 starting places as a penalty, so he started the race with everything to prove to his fans and his team. Thankfully, he stayed strong throughout the race, the GP16 bike showing its remarkable speed and keeping two chasing Suzukis at bay.
After a string of DNFs, Iannone was thrilled to take his first points of the season: “It was really important for me to get on the podium today, but more than anything else we had to close the race with a good result…I dedicate this podium to my Ducati and the team because I made them suffer in the first two races and I hope that this result will repay them for their commitment…”
Iannone may be out of the Ducati dog house for now, but Andrea Dovizioso wasn’t so lucky. His bad fortune continued on both halves of the continent, taken out by another rider for the second time this season.
This time, the culprit was Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who went down on turn 1 in the seventh lap. As he lost grip and slid out, he took Dovi out with him.
With the Ducati rider on his knees, Pedrosa immediately went to check if he was hurt. After the incident, cameras followed him entering the Ducati garage to apologise. It was nice to see such sportsmanship in MotoGP, but let’s hope that Dovizioso gets to finish the next race uninterrupted.
Suzuki triumphed in the Americas GP, achieving 4th and 5th place. The GSX-RR’s are looking more exciting in every race, and fans were treated to a Suzuki battle for 4th between Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales. Espargaro was on particularly excellent form, remaining with the leading pack for the entire race after starting in 9th.
How did the Brits do across the pond?
Yep, you guessed it… Cal Crutchlow suffered yet another crash in the Americas GP. Unfortunately, Bradley Smith went down with him! Both managed to get back on their bikes, with Crutchlow taking 16th place and Smith settling for 17th. A poor result for us on this side of the Atlantic.
However, Scott Redding on his satellite Ducati bike did give us something to celebrate. He rode a fantastic race to take 10 points in 6th place – well done Scott!
What’s next after the Americas GP?
The next round of MotoGP 2016 takes place in Jerez, Spain on Sunday 24th April. It’ll be showing on our UK screens at 1pm, perfect for a pub lunch with friends. Where will you be watching and with who? Tell us in the comments.
We’ll be back on Monday 25th April with our MotoGP Spain race report – until then, keep up to speed with what’s happened so far in our MotoGP Argentina and MotoGP Qatar blogs.
Photos courtesy of motogp.com.
