Moto GP ; Marc Marquez wins Indianapolis GP and is the king of the US

Marc Marquez has been officially crowned the King of the USA after winning the Austin, Laguna Seca and now the Indianapolis GP and took a stronger grip on the standings lead.

The MotoGP rookie took his his third consecutive race victory, - his fourth of the season - with Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo completing the all Spanish podium

The MotoGP rookie was highly tipped to win the race and that he did, even if he didn’t dominate it from start to finish as everyone expected, considering the devastating race pace that he showed all weekend long.

Jorge Lorenzo got the holeshot and kept the lead for almost half the race distance as the two Repsol Honda riders, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez closely shadowed him. Marquez made his first move on his team mate after six laps, in an aggressive outside pass and then began to hound the Yamaha rider and five laps later repeated another outside pass on Lorenzo.

With the just nine laps left Marquez whacked open the throttle and began to hammer out four blistering laps in 1.39.0 that would safely put him out of reach from his rivals, and he would cross over the finish line with a comfortable +3.495 margin.

Dani Pedrosa looked like he would end up third as he had started to fade, but with three laps left in the race, the suffering Honda rider decided that he couldn’t let Lorenzo take second and turned up the speed and caught him with just two laps remaining, once past the Yamaha rider he would began to distance him and take the second spot, while Lorenzo had to be content with third.

Valentino Rossi took a fantastic fourth. The Italian after lingering down in seventh for more than half the race suddenly began lowering his lap times. He chased down Stefan Bradl who was riding in 6th, and more than five seconds ahead of him, passed him and then set his sights on the battling Alvaro Bautista and Cal Cruthlow who were bashing fairings and exchanging positions.

With just three laps left Rossi caught them and the three were riding on each other tails, Rossi first passed Bautista and then began nosing around the Tech3 rider and on the final lap made his move only to run wide letting Crutchlow retake the position, but on the final corner Rossi dived in to take fourth ahead of Crutchlow and Bautista.

Stefan Bradl would ride to a lonely seventh, something he didn’t expect after a very competitive weekend, despite three crashes.

If Rossi excited the finale of the race, what happened between the Ducati factory riders was just as exciting even if surreal.

On the final corner Hayden put a very hard pass on team mate Dovizioso - it isn’t the first time - to try to take 8th, and the pass made them jump over the kerb onto the outside banking but as they returned to track, Bradley Smith snuck through and finished ahead the fueding pair by 0.011s.

There were numerous retirements by the CRT riders, Randy de Puniet was forced to retire with electronic issues, Lukas Pesek also had to return to his pit and Yonny Hernandez had to park his PBM machine, while Blake Young’s wildcard MotoGP adventure finished on the first lap.

2013 MotoGP Indianapolis race results:

01- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 27 laps in 44’52.463
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 3.495
03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 5.704
04- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 19.895
05- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 19.955
06- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 20.061
07- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 24.842
08- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 40.690
09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 40.701
10- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 40.823

from TWOWHEELSBLOG