MotoGP Results: Impressive Race Win For Marquez In Austin

Repsol Honda's MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez sent a message out to the rest of the paddock that he was back after his mishap in Qatar, as he dominated the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas, at one point leading by over 5 seconds.

After mixed weather over the course of the weekend, the sun came out and track temperatures at Circuit Of The Americas rose to 35 degrees in time for the start of the MotoGP race.

Andrea Dovizioso led the field into turn 1, with Marquez happy to let the Ducati GP15 open up a 0.5s lead during the opening couple of laps. The Spaniard took the lead on lap 5, and didn't look back as he went on to leave the rest of the field behind to maintain his 100-percent record at COTA, before relaxing towards the end of the race.

A brilliant battle for second then ensued between the Italians Valentino Rossi, Dovizioso, and his Ducati teammate Andrea Iannone. The Doctor having to use all of his skill and experience to hold off the charge of the red machines as they tried to make their power advantage count. He would eventually lose out to Dovizioso, who made it another podium for the resurgent Ducati Team, although Rossi maintains his lead in the Championship standings as he finished third.

Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo left it late, overtaking the Ducati GP15 of Andrea Iannone with only three laps to go to snatch fourth place from the Italian, with Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith rounding out the top six as the leading satellite rider.

CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow recovered from a poor start that saw him down in 10th on the opening lap to finish in seventh, six seconds behind Smith.

Aleix Espargaro was a further two seconds back in eighth, as he finished 19 seconds ahead of his rookie teammate Maverick Viñales on the second Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR in ninth.

Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci completed the top 10 ahead of substitute Repsol Honda of Hiroshi Aoyama, filling in for Dani Pedrosa, and the leading Open class bike of Hector Barbera on the Avintia Ducati (below).

Scott Redding earlier crashed at turn 11 taking out Pol Espargaro in the process, much to the chagrin of the Spanish rider, with a number of others also having to retire throughout the race.

RESULTS:
1. Marc MARQUEZ (93), Repsol Honda Team HONDA
2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (4) Ducati Team DUCATI
3. Valentino ROSSI (46) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA
4. Jorge LORENZO (99) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA
5. Andrea IANNONE (29) Ducati Team DUCATI
6. Bradley SMITH (38) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA
7. Cal CRUTCHLOW (35) CWM LCR Honda HONDA
8. Aleix ESPARGARO (41) Team Suzuki Ecstar SUZUKI
9. Maverick VIÑALES (25) Team Suzuki Ecstar SUZUKI
10. Danilo PETRUCCI (9) Pramac Racing DUCATI
11. Hiroshi AOYAMA (7) Repsol Honda Team HONDA
12. Hector BARBERA (8) Avintia Racing DUCATI
13. Nicky HAYDEN (69) Aspar MotoGP Team HONDA
14. Jack MILLER (43) CWM LCR Honda HONDA
15. Alvaro BAUTISTA (19) Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA
16. Eugene LAVERTY (50) Aspar MotoGP Team HONDA
17. Loris BAZ (76) Athinà Forward Racing YAMAHA
18. Alex DE ANGELIS (15) Octo IodaRacing Team ART

NOT CLASSIFIED:
Karel ABRAHAM (17) AB Motoracing HONDA
Marco MELANDRI (33) Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA
Yonny HERNANDEZ (68) Pramac Racing DUCATI
Mike DI MEGLIO (63) Avintia Racing DUCATI
Scott REDDING (45) EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA
Stefan BRADL (6) Athinà Forward Racing YAMAHA
Pol ESPARGARO (44) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA