Marquez makes history at Laguna Seca

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez continued his history-making rookie season by becoming the youngest ever rider to score back-to-back premier-class wins at today’s United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.

Starting second on the grid, Marquez had to fight his way past the two riders he ended up sharing the podium with - LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi – to take the race lead on lap nineteen and power away to win the race by 2.298 seconds. Bradl took second place for this first ever MotoGP podium, while Rossi’s third place was his third successive podium. Avintia Blusens rider Hector Barbera scored his best result of the season, his tenth place making him the highest-placed CRT rider this weekend.

The morning fog dissipated quicker than usual today at Laguna Seca and the long periods of sunshine resulted in the highest track temperatures seen this weekend with a peak of 50°C. Despite the high temperatures the softer rear slick was the popular choice, with all but three riders selecting the softest rear slick available to them. The high temperatures also placed less emphasis on the need for warm-up performance, so all riders selected the harder front slick option for the race.

At the halfway point of the season Marquez’s lead in the championship standings over teammate Dani Pedrosa is sixteen points, while Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo remains in third place and a further ten points back.

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department

“Once again today we witnessed history being made as Marc became the youngest ever rider to score back-to-back wins in MotoGP so congratulations to him and Repsol Honda on a job well done. I would also like to congratulate Stefan on his first ever MotoGP podium and seeing two young riders battling for victory is a great sign for the future of this championship. Dani and Jorge should also be commended for such strong performances today while riding with injury. The first half of the season has certainly had many memorable moments and although everyone in the paddock now gets to enjoy a well-deserved summer break, we are all looking forward to the next round at Indianapolis in a few weeks’ time with a great sense of anticipation.”

Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“Track temperatures today were at their highest level of the whole race weekend today and this did have an effect on which front tyre the riders chose. Earlier in the day it seemed some riders might look at using the softer front slick, but once track temperatures climbed over fifty degrees centigrade, warm-up performance wasn’t such a big priority so all riders decided to use the harder front slick option. Rear tyre choice among the works riders was identical with all preferring the softer rear slick, while all but three CRT riders also preferred the softer option. Even with the high track temperatures tyre performance was consistent with grip levels degrading predictably over race distance, so I am happy with how our tyres worked today.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda – Race Winner

“This race was what I expected although coming here for the first time I thought I might struggle more but from FP1 I felt good, although it takes time to learn where the bumps are on the track. Today’s race was good, but at the beginning I was a bit scared as with all the bumps it was possible to lose the front. I managed to get past Valentino and then stayed behind Stefan for some laps before passing him too and I’m very happy because at a new circuit I got twenty five points and it’s good to go into the summer break with this performance.”

United States MotoGP Top 10 Race Classification