Reigning MotoGP World Champion equalled Mick Doohan’s 1997 record of winning ten consecutive premier class races by taking the chequered flag at Indianapolis today and kept up his own record of never losing a MotoGP race on American soil.
Marquez crossed the line with a 1.8s advantage over Jorge Lorenzo with the second Movistar Yamaha of Valentino Rossi completing the podium but the Spanish wunderkind didn’t have it all his own way.
Getting a dismal start from his eighth pole of the year, Marquez dropped back to fourth on the entry to turn one after the lights went out while Rossi stuffed it up the inside of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso at turn two to lead and try a make a break.
Dani Pedrosa was ahead of Repsol team-mate Marquez but trailing Pramax Ducati Andrea Iannone with Lorenzo in fifth and Pedrosa made an early challenge on Marquez but he was having none of it and was straight back past.
Rossi had to contend with several moves by Dovizioso and the pair touched which allowing Marquez and Lorenzo through and then the game was on with all three tripping each other up as Dovi’s soft rear tyre chewed itself up.
Marquez finally got into the lead when Lorenzo, from third, tried to put a move on both his fellow Spaniard and Rossi. He managed to get under Marquez into turn one but Marquez then rode around the outside of the Yamaha before jamming it up the inside of both M1s into turn two.
Pedrosa was a distant fourth place, some ten seconds behind Marquez and had complained all weekend about a severe lack of grip while Pol Espargaro ended in fifth and a further seven seconds behind the Repsol Honda man.
Britain’s Bradley Smith put a late move on the slowing Dovizioso to take sixth place on the penultimate lap while Cal Crutchlow ended up on top of a race-long battle with Scott Redding who, with the departure of Aleix Espargaro, finished top Open class bike.
Espargaro was hit on the entry into turn one by an errant Stefan Bradl. The Spaniard only suffered a damaged rear but Bradl destroyed his LCR Honda, fortunatlely walking away from the high-speed shunt.
PBM Aprilia’s Michael Laverty finally got his first points finish of the season, taking two for 14th place as a reward for a season’s hard work.
It was disappointment for Leon Camier, however, as an intermittent electrical problem saw him retire after two trips into the pitlane. He had been sitting in 15th place and, even after coming in, was lapping faster than team-mate Hiro Aoyama in tenth place.
