Magic Marquez masters Indy

There was no stopping Marc Marquez at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, the Repsol Honda rounding out a relentless performance by taking the chequered flag today for his third consecutive MotoGP victory to sweep all races held in the United States of America this season.

Starting from pole position, Marquez lost out to teammate Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo at the start of the race to trail his two rivals for the opening laps. Marquez overtook Pedrosa on lap nine and seized the race lead from Lorenzo on lap thirteen, before streaking away to win by 3.495 seconds. Pedrosa fended off the challenge of Lorenzo to finish in second place, with the reigning MotoGP champion Lorenzo placing third. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro rode valiantly with an injured hand to finish as the top CRT entry in twelfth place.

Track temperatures for the race peaked at 53°C, however the temperature at the start of the race was in the mid-forty degree mark and all works riders, and all except four CRT riders, selected their softer rear slick option for the race. Front tyre choice was identical across the field, with all riders using the harder front slick. Although track temperatures increased throughout the race, the softer rear tyre options exhibited consistent degradation with a new race lap record of 1’39.044 set by Marquez on the eighteenth lap of the race.

Marquez’s third straight victory extends his lead in the championship standings over teammate Pedrosa to twenty-one points, with Lorenzo third in the standings and a further fourteen points behind.

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department

“That was certainly a very eventful end to what was a fantastic race! Congratulations to Marc for his dominant display this weekend and to Repsol Honda on securing their third 1-2 finish this season. With the good news that MotoGP will return to Indianapolis next year, I am sure the fans appreciated seeing such great action here this weekend, and I hope to see an even larger crowd here next year. We now return to Europe and I am very much looking forward to seeing the next chapter of this brilliant championship fight unfold at Brno.”

Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“With track temperatures today no higher than experienced in qualifying yesterday, all works riders and most of the CRT riders decided to use their softer rear slick option for the race. Front tyre choice was the same for all riders, with the hard compound front slick being selected and this combination resulted in very quick lap times in the race. The medium compound slick, which was the softer choice for the works riders performed very well in the conditions with a fast race pace and new Circuit Record Lap being set in the second half of the race. The performance of our tyres this weekend makes me very happy as new qualifying and race lap records were set and we enjoyed good tyre durability at this very demanding circuit.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda – Race Winner

“I didn’t get a good start but I knew before the race that the most important part was the end of the race. For the first few laps I just focused on following Dani and Jorge and conserving the tyres and once I got past them I felt so good with the bike and managed to build a gap. I really enjoyed the race and the twenty-five points are important for the championship.”

Indianapolis MotoGP Top 10 Race Classification