Marquez dominates Americas GP, Crutchlow crashes, Dovi heads championship

Marc Marquez cruised to his sixth straight win at the Circuit of the Americas during Sunday’s Grand Prix of the Americas, as he goes 2nd in the championship. It is Marquez’s first win of the season, with his last win coming in Australia last year at Phillip Island. The Repsol Honda ace, now being dubbed ‘The King of COTA’ only had one challenge the whole race, from Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone – who took his first podium since Valencia in 2016.

After a tricky start, Marquez swooped into 2nd, chasing Iannone as the pack headed through ‘The Snake’ section. At turn 12, he made his move to pass Iannone. Pole-sitter Vinales got swallowed up in the pack and was 3rd, with Crutchlow, Zarco and Rossi in behind.

The field quickly spread out and Marquez went about setting fastest lap after fastest lap, stretching the lead to well over seven seconds by the end, to take yet another commanding GP victory in the USA.

Maverick Vinales was able to get past Andrea Iannone but front tyre degradation meant that Valentino Rossi could only secure fourth, behind his teammate and fellow countryman. Andrea Dovizioso moved into 5th ahead of Zarco, whereas Argentine GP winner Cal Crutchlow crashed unceremoniously at turn 20 on lap 7. He finished the race 19th after remounting.

One of the stand-out performances came from Esteve Rabat, who put in another marvellous ride to take 8th place, ahead of Jack Miller. It was the first time ever that the 2014 Moto2 champion had scored back-to-back top tens in MotoGP. Aleix Espargaro completed the top ten, whereas a despondent Jorge Lorenzo could only roll home in 11th. This was his seventh finish outside the top ten in 21 races.

Danilo Petrucci took a subdued 12th, with Pol Espargaro, Takaaki Nakagami and Alvaro Bautista completing the points. A surprise was that Franco Morbidelli finished in last place, the first that has happened in his career since Losail in 2014, during the Moto2 race.

Alex Rins crashed out along with Hafizh Syahrin and Karel Abraham. All crashes were separate incidents and all riders are OK.