Marc Márquez wins again in Austin MotoGP race

Yamaha man Jorge Lorenzo had got off to a bad start in the 2014 FIM MotoGP World Championship, the 26-year-old crashing on the first lap in Qatar, and with reigning title holder Marc Márquez taking his Honda to victory. Round two was the Grand Prix of the Americas, in Austin.

For the man from Houston, Colin Edwards, the Circuit of the Americas in Texas provided the appropriate venue for MotoGP’s oldest competitor to announce his planned retirement at the end of the year. Edwards had graduated from domestic AMA competition, winning the 250cc title in 1992, then competing at Superbike level with Vance & Hines Yamaha for two years, with three race victories. He then moved into World Superbikes for Yamaha, with ten podium results in three seasons. But from 1998 to 2002 he was a 31-time race winner with Honda, twice as runner-up in the championship and with two title successes in a strong rivalry with Ducati’s Troy Bayliss.

Edwards has been a MotoGP racer for over a decade, having started on the Aprilia, and then as partner to Sete Gibernau at Gresini Honda. He was teamed with pace-setting Valentino Rossi at Yamaha for three seasons, before heading up the customer Tech 3 team for another four. In over 180 races on 990cc, 800cc and 1000cc bikes, Colin has recorded twelve second- or third-place results, famously coming closest to taking a victory at Assen in 2006.

For his home race in 2014, the prospects were not looking so rosy for Edwards on his Open class Forward Yamaha after qualifying, with the 40-year-old back in 19th position. However, for team-mate Aleix Espargaró there was a career-best fourth place on the grid, behind only three of the Factory class prototype Hondas. The first two were the Repsol-backed full works machines of Spanish duo Márquez and Dani Pedrosa, with pole man Marc having a promising margin of advantage, the youngster planning to be the only rider on the harder rear Bridgestone tyre on race day.

Third on the grid was LCR team man Stefan Bradl, with the Gresini Honda of Álvaro Bautistá right back in twelfth, only one place in front of Open team-mate Scott Redding. The Factory class Yamahas filled positions five, six, eight and eleven, with the MoviStar works bikes of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi on row two, and with Tech 3 riders Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaró behind. Ducatis filled the other leading positions, with Cal Crutchlow seventh, Andrea Dovizioso tenth and Pramac rider Andrea Iannone ninth.

The remaining Open machines were headed by 14th man Nicky Hayden (Aspar Honda), from Yonny Hernández (Pramac Ducati), Hiroshi Aoyama (also Aspar), Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Honda), Héctor Barberá (Avintia), Edwards, Michael Laverty and Broc Parkes (both PBM), Danilo Petrucci (IodaRacing ART) and Mike di Meglio on the second Avintia machine.

Form guide: GP wins at Circuit of the Americas
Marc Márquez 1

The start of the race was notable for the way Lorenzo launched away from the line too early, a jump start that was obviously going to incur a penalty; so that he went on his way as rapidly as he could at the front of the field, taking to the pitlane after one circuit before he could even be told to come in. The rest of the pack left the line on cue, with Márquez in second place and Pedrosa third. Iannone found the inside line for the tight left at turn one, emerging in fourth, from Crutchlow, Bradl and Dovizioso.

Márquez built on the pace he’d shown in practice, and after Lorenzo removed himself the Honda man was on his way to a lead of 0.8s after two laps. Pedrosa tried to stay in touch, similarly moving clear from the rest of the pack, whilst Iannone was able to run a marginally better pace than Crutchlow behind him on the works Ducati. Rossi had quickly passed Smith for what was now seventh, and he was soon attacking Dovizioso and Bradl.

Aleix Espargaró had not managed a good start, so it was his brother Pol who ran ninth, with Aleix also behind Bautistá. Following on were Hernández, Redding, Hayden, Aoyama, Edwards, Laverty, di Meglio (both PBM riders soon to start dropping back), Abraham, Petrucci, Barberá and Parkes, and with Lorenzo back out from his ride-through penalty at the very back of the field.

This meant that seventh man Rossi was the first of the Yamaha pilots, but his early progress saw him pass Dovizioso, then Bradl, then Crutchlow to take him into fourth, where he began catching the solitary Iannone ahead. A close contest behind saw Bradl overtake Crutchlow on the inside at the turn twelve left-hander, with Dovizioso soon to follow suit, and not too long after that Cal started having some difficulties with his machine, letting the next three go by and continuing in tenth. In due course he would pit for new tyres because of chatter.

Meanwhile, Márquez was extending his advantage, which was approaching 2.0s, with second man Pedrosa well clear of the rest; whilst Lorenzo was making his way through the tail end runners. Rossi closed on Iannone, going through into third momentarily at a left-hand corner, but going very wide on the exit and letting the Ducati man back through. From this point, Valentino seemed to hit trouble, the suspected cause being related to his tyres. First Bradl then Dovizioso overtook, and then the Tech 3 riders came into the picture, both going through together, with Espargaró ahead of Smith.

Smith had earlier lost out to team-mate Pol and then to Bautistá, but by this stage Álvaro had crashed out. That made him the second non-finisher after Parkes pulled into the pits. The next casualty would be Crutchlow, whose crash caused him a hand injury. And by now Lorenzo was through ahead of a fair number of the Open runners, having successively dealt with di Meglio, Petrucci, Laverty, Abraham, Barberá and Edwards, and with Aoyama next on the list.

Márquez now held a 3.2s advantage, with third man Iannone 12s down on Pedrosa. Bradl and Dovizioso were starting to target the Pramac rider and were closing in, with Tech 3 runners Espargaró and Smith not too far adrift. Rossi remained clear of Aleix Espargaró in a lonely eighth, with Lorenzo past the trio of Hernández, Hayden and Redding and trying to make up even more ground in tenth. Soon after this Bradley Smith finally repassed Pol Espargaró and started to move clear of his rookie team-mate.

In the late stages, most of the action centred on Iannone as he struggled to maintain his early pace. Bradl and Dovizioso were able to overtake him in consecutive corners, and a while later Smith took his turn to go past. By the end, Pol had also got past the Ducati man. Meanwhile, Bradl was now into third place, but it was no time before Dovizioso got past him, through the right-hand bend at turn 16 into turn 17. With the Repsol Honda pair in another league, and with two from two for Márquez, this meant Andrea reached the finish in third place, the first rostrum for a Ducati works rider since Misano in September 2012.

Therefore the result saw Márquez, after an apparently serious ‘moment’ in the final corner (which he said was to add interest for the spectators), heading home Pedrosa, Dovizioso, Bradl, Smith, Pol Espargaró, Iannone, Rossi and Aleix Espargaró. Lorenzo had got past Redding, Hernández and Hayden for tenth at the finish, with Redding suffering a late crash so that Hayden was followed home by Aoyama, Hernández, Abraham, Barberá, Laverty, Petrucci and di Meglio. Edwards had hit trouble and retired from the race from a possible fourteenth place finish.

It had been another costly 2014 race for Jorge Lorenzo, so that the 2010 and 2012 champion had only six points on the board. Marc Márquez was fully in control with a maximum fifty for his two victories, with double podium man Dani Pedrosa the closest challenger. Will Lorenzo get it right next time out at a new MotoGP venue, at Rio Hondo in Argentina?

Standings after two races: Márquez 50; Pedrosa 36; Rossi 28; Dovizioso 27; A.Espargaró 20; Iannone 15; Hayden and Bradl 13; Smith 11; Crutchlow and P.Espargaró 10 ·· Open leader: A.Espargaró.
Honda 50; Yamaha 31; Ducati 27; Forward Yamaha 20; ART 2; PBM and Avintia 1.

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