Podium from Grand Prix of the Americas

Austin, Texas, Apr 13th 2014 – MotoGP™ World Champion Marc Marquez utterly dominated the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas race, taking victory by a four second margin from his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, with Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) completing the podium.

A jump start ruined the race for Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and he finished 10th after a ride through penalty.

Lorenzo took the holeshot after a bizarre error from the former World Champion and he rode through pit lane at the end of the first lap, leaving Marquez clear at the front. Pedrosa tried to stay with Marquez, who was the only ‘Factory’ rider to run the hard rear tyre, but the youngster sped away to become the first rider to win the first two races of the year from pole in the premier-class since Mick Doohan in 1995.

A first podium for Dovizioso as a Ducati Team rider was great news for the Italian factory, though there was some bad news for them too as Cal Crutchlow crashed out and injured his right hand, having earlier pitted due to tyre problems.

Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) missed the podium by just under two seconds after winning a battle for fourth with Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3), whilst Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) was sixth.

Marc Marquez– “I’m very happy! I got a really good start, but when I saw Jorge overtake me off the line at first I was a little worried, but then I saw that he had jumped the start. It was a different race to previous ones because I led from start to finish; although it might seem easier that way, it is tough because you have to maintain concentration. It was a perfect weekend and gives us plenty of confidence, although we are aware that the coming races will be different. I know that the race was a little boring for the fans, but sometimes these types of races are good for a rider. Let’s hope that the next one is more exciting!”

Dani Pedrosa – “It was a tough race as Marc was that little faster than me and although I tried to improve with every corner, it was too difficult to gain ground on him and the distance between us increased with every lap. In the end, he was too far away from me. I didn’t have anyone behind me either, so I just kept up my pace as best I could. I learnt a few things in this race and we will try to apply them and make the maximum improvement possible, in order to be able to put up more of a fight next time.”

Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) dropped back to seventh having been third in the early stages, whilst there were problems too for Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) as he hunted the podium in the early stages and faded to eighth in the second half of the race.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team ) – 3rd “I am very pleased with the way I managed the race because in the early laps I didn’t have the right pace. But I kept calm and kept up a constant pace, and this paid off because I didn’t stress the tyres too much. My performance dropped off a bit towards the end but obviously less than the other riders I was fighting with and this allowed me to do the final stages in a good condition. Then I pulled out a small gap over Bradl and Smith, which allowed me to take the chequered flag with an advantage of almost two seconds. I am very pleased with this result for my team. We’ve been working hard for a year and suffering a lot, and we are still not as quick as we would like to be. Getting a result like this at this time of the season is very important, also for all the engineers and mechanics in the racing division back in Bologna, who are working very hard to improve the Desmosedici’s competitiveness.”

Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) was ninth at a track which he has admitted is not his strongest, whilst Lorenzo rounded out the top ten after his mistake at the start.

Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) finished as the top ‘Open’ Honda rider and top American in 11th – whilst his compatriot Colin Edwards (NGM Forward Racing) was unable to finish his home race. Crashes for Alvaro Baustista and Scott Redding also ruined GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s weekend.

Honda riders have now won the last eight MotoGP races in the USA and the last non-Honda MotoGP winner in the States was Lorenzo, at Laguna Seca in 2010.