In his fifth attempt at the Grand Prix of the Americas, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has sealed his fifth victory, and in regularly dominant fashion.
Circuit of the Americas posed a formidable threat to the three-time MotoGP champion’s run of success in Texas, with new Movistar Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales coming off two straight wins to start the season. Vinales’ free practice and qualifying times reflected his capability of challenging his fellow Spaniard on American soil, besting Marquez in FP1 and FP3 and landing in third on the qualifying grid one-tenth of a second behind.
But time trials don’t always translate to race scenarios, and when Vinales crashed early on, only Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa had anything to offer him. Pedrosa took the lead early, but lost it to Marquez, eventually falling to third after a battle from a hard-charging Valentino Rossi, who finished three seconds back from Marquez.
First-year rider Johann Zarco posted practice times in the 2.04-range and qualified fifth, but an early race incident with Rossi hurt his track position. He would finish fifth behind Cal Crutchlow, who picked up positions in the second half of the race.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso improved one spot on his qualifying position, finishing sixth. Teammate Jorge Lorenzo came in 9th, his highest of the season
Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Andrea Iannone came in 7th, followed by Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci, who engaged in a hard battle with teammate Scott Redding early on.
Jack Miller rounded out the Top 10, followed by Zarco’s fellow rookie at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Jonas Folger.
Tito Rabat, Hector Barbera and Alvaro Bautista took the final three points-scoring spots, respectively.
Red Bull KTM had another weak showing in their first year, with Pol Espargaro earning a no-classification and Bradley Smith finishing 16th, just outside of point-scoring range.
