Repsol Honda Marc Marquez rider proved once again he was the king of Texas winning his sixth consecutive Austin GP at the Circuit of the Americas. The Spaniard beat Yamaha's Maverick Vinales and Suzuki's Andrea Iannone to take the win, having started in fourth place following a penalty for blocking Vinales in qualifying. The 2018 MotoGP Austin GP also turned out to be a big delight for Suzuki as Iannone took the team's first podium of the season, shutting down several questions on his performance in the process.
(Andrea Iannone took the first win for Suzuki this season at Circuit of the Americas)
Having qualified for pole (also sixth consecutive time), Marquez was demoted to fourth by the race stewards for blocking Vinales during the latter's hot lap. However, the Honda rider stormed in the race right from the start and moved into P2 at Turn 1 on the opening lap with Iannone in the lead, a big step up for Suzuki. However, Iannone's lead was short lived as Marquez passed the Suzuki rider on Turn 12 of the opening lap itself. Nevertheless, Iannone was at his relentless best sitting close to the Honda rider and managed to take the lead briefly as Marquez ran wide on Lap 3, but only for the Spaniard to retake the lead.
Marquez had consolidated his position by now and opened a two-second gap over the rest of the field by Lap 5, which extended to four seconds by Lap 7. The reigning world champion proved his dominance for the sixth time in Austin crossing the chequered flag with a lead of 3.5s.
(Maverick Vinales sits third in the points table post the Austin GP)
There was enough action behind the race leader with Vinales pursuing to take P2 from Iannone. With no wins yet to Vinales' name this season, the Spanish rider seemed confident of bringing in a podium finish with this one. Having started the race at P2, Vinales was eager to take back the spot from Iannone and did so at Turn 1 of Lap 7. The Yamaha rider was hard to catch up post that until the end of the race.
Meanwhile, Iannone fended off competition from Yamaha's Valentino Rossi who couldn't get past his teammate in the initial stages and had to settle for fourth. But the big disappointment was pre-race points leader Cal Crutchlow who crashed out while fighting for P5 and eventually finished in 19th place. Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso managed to secure the fifth place, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco.
(Andrea Dovizioso finished fifth in the Austin GP and leads the points table)
After much uncertainty, Honda rider Dani Pedrosa did participate in the Austin GP with a post-surgery right wrist and finished at P7, quite commendable to say the least. The last three spots in the top 10 list were taken by Tito Rabat of Avinitia Racing, Jack Miller of Pramac Ducati and Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro. Jorge Lorenzo continued to struggle on the second Ducati works and eventually finished at P11, ahead of Pramac Ducati's Danillo Petrucci.
(Commendable show by Dani Pedrosa, having come back post a surgery to the right wrist)
Behind him were Pol Espargaro of KTM, LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and Alvaro Bautista of Nieto Ducati taking the last of the points. KTM's Bradley Smith, Scott Redding on the Aprilia, and Thomas Luthi of Honda managed to finish in ahead of Crutchlow at the end of the race. With respect to crashes, Alex Rins of Suzuki and Hafizh Syahrin of Tech 3 Yamaha crashed out, while Karel Abraham on the Nieto Ducati retired early due to wrist pain, following Saturday's crash.
With Dovizioso finishing in the top five, the Ducati rider currently leads the rider standings for the season by a single point over Marc Marquez with 45 points. Its interesting to note that Vinales sits in third in the rider standings (41 points) without having won a single race this season. Cal Crutchlow, who was leading the championship with a smashing win at Argentina, is now fourth on the points table.
It means Dovizioso retakes the lead of the championship by a single point from Marquez, with Vinales just five behind in third.
