Indianapolis, Sun, 18 August 2013-Marc Marquez has completed a dominant weekend by winning the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, leading home Dani Pedrosa in the third Repsol Honda Team one-two finish of the season. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo completed the podium as Valentino Rossi beat Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista to fourth.

Marquez’s victory ensures that the Spaniard has topped every session he has taken part in this weekend – something not done since Casey Stoner dominated the Australian Grand Prix event of last year. The victory marks Marquez’s third consecutive premier class race win and confirms a clean sweep of American successes this season, having also triumphed at Texas and Laguna Seca.

Marc Marquez – “I am very happy to have taken another 25 points! I knew before we came here that this would be a good opportunity and I was able to take advantage of it. I felt very good throughout the weekend, and I think this has been my best GP overall since coming into the premier class. I was first in every session, so I couldn’t ask for more. In the race I decided to follow Lorenzo and Pedrosa, trying to save my tyres at the start. When I saw that I was feeling good and had less fuel in the tank, I tried to attack. In the end I was able to break away and have some fun sliding the bike around and enjoying how good the ride was! Now we head back to Europe, where we will try to continue working in the same way and see how many points we can pick up.”

From pole position, another poor start from the 20-year-old rookie saw Marquez fall behind both Lorenzo and teammate Pedrosa. He would overtake the pair on Laps 9 and 13, respectively, and – as his rivals continued to feel the effects of injured collarbones – would cross the finish line almost three and a half seconds ahead.

Dani Pedrosa – “Today I gave all I had. I struggled to keep my energy up and I was forced to ride in a different way because of the pain I was suffering. It was a difficult race, because I was fighting a lot against the bike but in the end I was able to keep up my pace and take a good second place! In other conditions I’m sure we would have done better, but we did all that we could under the circumstances today and should draw that positive from the day.”

Pedrosa looked to be finishing the 27-lap race in third position, but sprang a surprise by slipstreaming ahead of Lorenzo at the start of the penultimate lap. For both Pedrosa and Lorenzo, this marked their first podium finishes since the Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona some two months ago. In fourth place, Lorenzo’s teammate Rossi rose from ninth on the grid and only on the final tour got the better of Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Crutchlow and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Bautista, who had enjoyed a race-long battle. Stefan Bradl finished seventh for LCR Honda MotoGP.

Rounding out the top ten were Crutchlow’s teammate Bradley Smith and Ducati Team pairing Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso; the English debutant (who had run as high as fourth on Lap 1, thanks to a superb start) leapfrogged both of the red bikes as Hayden pushed Dovizioso wide at the final corner. This was a near repeat of a final-corner incident at Assen from which Smith also benefitted.

Four riders failed to finish the race. Attack Performance Racing wildcard Blake Young crashed on the opening lap, where problems hit Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar), Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project) and Yonny Hernandez (PBM). Unable to race were both Ignite Pramac Racing’s Ben Spies, whose comeback was ruined when he separated his left shoulder on Friday, and Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham who heavily bruised a foot and shoulder, also on Day 1.

Heading to next weekend’s bwin Grand Prix ?eské republiky at Brno, Marquez (188 points) has extended his championship lead to 21 points from Pedrosa (167). Reigning World Champion Lorenzo (153) now sits 35 points behind the leader.


Moto2

 

Tito Rabat has won for the second time in Moto2™, pulling a late pass on Takaaki Nakagami to triumph in Sunday’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. Following another spirited battle, Scott Redding increased his title-leading advantage by beating Pol Espargaro to the final podium position.

Victory for Rabat is the Spaniard’s second after Jerez earlier this year. The Tuenti HP 40 rider – teammate to Espargaro – came from fourth place on the grid, having run fifth in the opening stages of the race. His other teammate, Axel Pons, did not make the start (due to a fever) which left 32 riders on the grid.

A strong getaway for pole-sitter Redding allowed the Englishman (Marc VDS Racing Team) to fend off Espargaro and lead into the first corner. Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team) was third, but pulled a strong manoeuvre on Espargaro to seize second spot at Turn 10. On the second lap, Nakagami stole the lead from Redding and – pushing for a first win – would not lose the top spot until Lap 23.

Rabat’s charge came very much in the second half of the race, first overhauling Redding on Lap 19 before carrying out a confident pass on teammate Espargaro two laps later. The move for the lead came at Turn 1 on the 23rd lap of 25, denying Nakagami his career-first victory. Behind, Espargaro – who had started second to Redding – fought his major rival, but ran wide at the second corner and was forced to fend off Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter for the rest of the race.

Positions six to ten were filled by Simone Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing), Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team), Johann Zarco (Came Iodaracing Project), Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team) and Sachsenring race winner Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2). Blusens Avintia’s Kyle Smith was the only faller, crashing out on Lap 12.

Heading to Brno and the Czech round of the World Championship next weekend, Redding’s championship lead over Espargaro has been stretched out to 26 points, with 159 versus 133. Today’s race winner Rabat (113 points) remains third in the standings, now the reduced margin of 46 points in arrears of Redding.