- 2017-04-24
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ MotoGP Americas: Marc Marquez Wins at Red Bull Austin Again, Maverick Vinales Crashes
The Round 3 on MotoGP 2017, America Grand Prix ran at The Circuit Of The Americas in Austin on April 23.
Pole position start Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) claimed a fifth MotoGP victory at Austin. Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) took the 2nd place, who battled with Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team). Dani Pedrosa stood at the podium since 2016's San Marino.
Maverick Vinales ((Movistar Yamaha) crashed out at Turn 18 in early on.
At beginning of the race, Dani Pedrosa got a good start and led his team-mate Marc Marquez and two factory Yamaha's riders. But Maverick Vinales crashed out at Turn 18 on first lap, Valentino Rossi alone against the Honda duo.
Marc Marquez passed Dani Pedrosa with seven laps to go, afterwards, he kept the top position and got the chequered flag.
Valentino Rossi gave pressure Dani Pedrosa and overtook him at two laps remaining. But Valentino Rossi was given 0.3s time penalty for cutting the track during the battle for 3rd place with Tech 3 rider Johann Zarco.
This result marks Valentino Rossi moves up to the top of the championship and Maverick Vinales drops to 2nd, as well as Marc Marquez is 3rd behind Valentino Rossi 18 points.
Marc Marquez (P1):
“It’s an important victory and an important race because after Argentina it was important to come back in the best way. It was a difficult race because the temperature was much higher than yesterday and five minutes before I said to my chief mechanic I wanted to go with the hard front. I knew that I was pushing a lot with the front tyre and in the beginning I was just trying to take care and understand the limit of the tyre because I didn’t try it a lot on Friday. I stayed behind Dani and when I saw he was suffering a bit I said ‘ok, it’s time to attack.’ Then it was the perfect race for me, really consistent, under control and I’m happy to be back again in the Championship. My team put Viñales was out on the board, but I also saw the replay on the screen. It didn’t change my plan because I had one plan – understand the race. The mistake in Argentina was big and I didn’t want to make it again. Somebody said I was out of the Championship already! But the Championship is really long. Now Valentino is leading the Championship – who maybe wasn’t the fastest in the preseason, but has been the most consistent! So big respect to him. I'm sure that sooner or later, the battle with Viñales will arrive.”
Valentino Rossi (P2):
“This is a big surprise, especially for us, because after the tests we were quite desperate. We tried to think to use the whole bike and we made the right choice. The problem was that we needed more time to understand the way to ride the bike and how to set it up. But the bike has something positive, at the end of the race I’m able to push and be strong. In Argentina with Cal and here with Dani I could attack. Last year I was fast in the beginning and then suffered. It’s just three races so it will be hard to remain in this position but it’s great - we just need to enjoy the moment. Today, for me the penalty wasn’t right because I had two choices – go straight or crash. But the problem there was not Race Direction, the problem was Zarco. He’s very fast, he rides very well and has great potential but this isn’t Moto2 and if you want to overtake you overtake in a different way and he always arrives too delayed. He needs to stay a little more quiet!”
Dani Pedrosa (P3):
“Overall it was a good weekend, much further up front. Some things could have been better but I’ happy overall. I got a clean start, finally, and starting from fourth I could have a clean line from the start. Leading the race for a few laps was amazing. I could have gone faster but I knew I had to take care of my tyres. All weekend I had problems to manage the right side of the rear but then in the race I destroyed the right side of the front! I couldn’t stay with Valentino because I had to slow but it was an important step and I’m looking forward to Jerez, a track I like. The last race was disappointing and today was a difficult race – you’re thinking about the disappointments from before but you don’t want to go too hard and make another mistake. But we’re understanding a lot more where to change some little things, and hopefully in the next few races we can make more step forward.”
RED BULL GRAND PRIX OF THE AMERICAS MotoGP Race Results:- Marc Marquez / Repsol Honda Team / 43'58.770s
- Valentino Rossi / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / 44'1.839s
- Dani Pedrosa / Repsol Honda Team / 44'3.882s
- Cal Crutchlow / LCR Honda / 44'6.408s
- Johann Zarco / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / 44'6.727s
- Andrea Dovizioso / Ducati Team / 44'12.828s
- Andrea Iannone / Team Suzuki Ecstar / 44'14.261s
- Danilo Petrucci / Octo Pramac Racing / 44'15.542s
- Jorge Lorenzo / Ducati Team / 44'16.749s
- Jack Miller / Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS / 44'17.264s
- Jonas Folger / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / 44'17.673s
- Scott Redding / Octo Pramac Racing / 44'27.505s
- Tito Rabat / Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS / 44'28.811s
- Hector Barbera / Reale Avintia Racing / 44m 30.134s
- Alvaro Bautista / Pull&Bear Aspar Team / 45'5.317s
- Bradley Smith / Red Bull KTM Factory Racing / 45'20.860s
- Aleix Espargaro / Factory Aprilia Gresini / +2 laps
All photos copyright by MotoGP.- source : MotoGP
