Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez cruised to the win at Austin today, building a five-second lead over team-mate Dani Pedrosa while Andrea Dovizioso jumped and gapped Stefan Bradl with a handful of laps left to bag a podium for Ducati.
But it was disaster for the Movistar Yamaha team and for Britain’s Cal Crutchlow. First off, Jorge Lorenzo jumped the start by a margin Bob Beamon would be proud of and was forced into a ride-through, Valentino Rossi’s front Bridgestone was shot before half race distance and the Ducati man crashed and broke his right hand.
Rossi looked set for a podium at his bogey track, moving into fourth place with only old friend Andrea Iannone to pass for the final rostrum spot but a pass and re-pass on the Italian was as close as he got.
With 12 laps to go, The Doctor was passed by Bradl and was then caught in no short order by both Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith on the satellite Monster Yamahas. The first thing he did when he got back to his garage, along with a Bridgestone technician, was to inspect the front tyre.
Crutchlow had been running in fourth on lap two but slowly slipped backwards before pitting in to change his rear tyre due to a massive chatter problem. He then went back out but crashed and was taken to the medical centre with a broken hand.
Scott Redding also suffered problem with his front tyre and his grip fell off a cliff just before he was passed by Nicky Hayden and then the Go&Fun Honda rider lost the front totally but walked away from the crash.
It was good news for Smith, however, as his battle with Bradl almost saw the Oxforshire former coppertop bag fourth but he was out-muscled by the German LCR Honda man. He leaves America with a bagful of points for fifth after dropping team-mate Espargaro with five laps left.
Iannone slipped back to seventh but will be well pleased with holding a podium slot for a majority of the race. Rossi was one place behind with Aleix Espargaro next along. Lorenzo recovered from his penalty to take tenth.
PBM’s Michael Laverty missed a point score by less than two tenths of a second when he had to give best to Hector Barbera and finished 16th.
