Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez has taken his third win of the season at Indianapolis and continues his unbeaten run of wins on American soil with a seven-tenths of a second victory over Jorge Lorenzo while Valentino Rossi also maintained his record of finishing on the podium in every race so far this year.
Marquez shadowed Lorenzo for most of the race but as the two put in their fastest laps with five to go - Marquez breaking his own lap record in the process - the Repsol Honda man went under his Movistar Yamaha-mounted compatriot into turn one and was never again headed.
The pair were half a second faster than the chasing Rossi and Dani Pedrosa for most of the 27 lapper but Marquez just had the final kick on the last two laps and pulled a half second gap to win for only the third time this year, adding to his Austin and Sachsenring wins and take Honda 700th GP win.
It was damage limitation for Rossi who was off the pace of the leaders all weekend and only a couple of block passes on Pedrosa into turn two kept the nine-time world champion on the podium, starting from eighth place on the grid once again. Rossi’s lead over Lorenzo in the title stakes has been reduced to nine points with eight races left to run.
Ducati’s Andrea Iannone was once again in fifth place but was chased down by Britain’s Bradley Smith. Iannone ran the medium tyre while Smith had the hard on his Monster Yamaha. The Oxfordshire rider got to within a tenth of the works GP15 but just didn’t have the pace to make a pass and crossed the line for sixth again while his team-mate Pol Espargaro was eight second slower in seventh.
Cal Crutchlow got off to a bad start and sank backwards from this second-row start spot. But the CWM-LCR man, also on the hard tyre, battled his way back through and was in a battle with Espargaro but lost out by just 1.229s in the final laps.
After a first-lap error which saw him take to the grass at turn two, Andrea Dovizioso salvaged ninth place from stone last with Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci completing the top ten. Maverick Vinales was next along with Yonny Hernandez in 12th.
Scott Redding made a bright start and got up to ninth but he slipped backwards and ended up in 13th place, one ahead of Aleix Espargaro. Eugene Laverty was another fast starter, getting into the points early doors but he too lost pace and finished in 19th, just ahead of Stefan Bradl on the Aprilia.
