Maverick Vinales was left to ride unhindered to the MotoGP win in Argentina today after reigning champion Marc Marquez crashed out of a two-second lead on the fourth lap as Valentino Rossi and Britain’s Cal Crutchlow scrapped it out for the podium positions.
Marquez scorching away like a scalded hamster, putting huge faith in the hard front Michelin to gap Crutchlow in second and a fight between Rossi and Vinales for third. It looked like the Repsol Honda man had it all under control until he braked for turn two, lost the front and bounced into the gravel.
It was a gift for Vinales who had nabbed second from Crutchlow a lap before and he took off, staying in the 1’39s to open a near-three second lead and he was never challenged again, leaving The Doctor and Crutchlow to battle it out for second place.
Crutchlow managed to keep the Movistar Yamaha man in check until there were seven laps left on the board. Rossi glided under the LCR Honda man on the brakes into turn five and Crutchlow didn’t have answer, looking with three laps left he had decided discretion was the better part of valour and wound it down to collect 16 points - saying in parc ferme he had some warning lights on his dash and had to knock it off.
Disaster in the Repsol garage was not left to Marquez alone as Dani Pedrosa had the same crash at the same corner but left it 11 laps later. Pedrosa had just dispensed with Johann Zarco and Danilo Petrucci for fourth place and looked set for a points haul but it was not to be. In the garage, Pedrosa had no explanation for the crash and looked bemused.
Repsol, though, did not have the monopoly on lobbing it. Jorge Lorenzo’s challenge last one corner as he tagged the back of Andrea Iannone and went down on the exit of turn one while Andrea Dovizioso’s luck in the Americas continued to be bad as he was nerfed by Aleix Espargaro as he lost the front at turn one and collected the works Ducati.
All this allowed Pull&Bear’s Alvaro Bautista to ride through the field, putting in some 1’39s of his own to take a well-deserved fourth place on the year-old Desmosedici GP16. Zarco, who opted for the hard rear on his Monster Yamaha, made short work of getting through to fifth but just couldn’t keep his laptimes. He ended in fifth, one place and nine seconds ahead of team-mate Jonas Folger.
Petrucci, also on the hard rear, was right in the fight early doors but slipped back to seventh, one ahead of Octo Ducati team-mate Scott Redding. Jack Miller and front-row starter Karel Abraham completed the top ten.
Bradley Smith collected his a championship point for KTM while Sam Lowes retired with a gearbox problem. Iannone finished stone last after picking up a jump start penalty while Ecstar Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins retired after a crash.
Points:
Vinales now leads Rossi in the title stakes by 14 points with Andrea Dovizioso in third. By virtue of finishing the opening two races, Scott Redding is in fourth, one ahead of Cal Crutchlow. Marquez sinks to eighth behind Jack Miller while Lorenzo is 18th with just five points to his name. Only Andrea Iannone and Sam Lowes are yet to score.
