Red Bull Motorsports
MotoGP
Here’s a recap of a manic Argentina MotoGP
Marc Márquez took his first win of 2016 in a race that couldn’t have packed in any more action.
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It’s a good job there are seven days until the next round of the MotoGP World Championship after the Argentina GP, because it might take that much time to digest everything that happened at Termas de Río Hondo.
It had been a tricky weekend up until the start of the race, with ScottRedding experiencing a rear-tyre blowout that forced the race organisers to schedule an extra practice session. When the rain arrived on race day, that practice session had to be cancelled, and the warm-up extended instead.
After all that, the race provided even more breathless drama. Márquez, starting from pole position (as he has done for the past three seasons now in Argentina), was almost cleared out by Andrea Iannone at the first turn, and his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was forced well wide by the Italian too.
Marc Márquez nailed his bike switch
© Repsol Honda
Reigning World Champion and race winner in Qatar, JorgeLorenzo, crashed out on the sixth lap in the damp conditions, and was one of eight riders who didn’t make it to the finish line.
When things settled down, it was AndreaDovizioso, Márquez and ValentinoRossi who formed a three-rider battle at the front. Before long, Márquez and Rossi were dicing for the lead as the mandatory bike swap loomed.
Teams had been told their riders had to pit at the end of either their ninth, 10th or 11th lap, and Márquez led Rossi into the pitlane with nothing separating the two. When they emerged, the Honda rider dialled it in immediately, while Rossi needed a few laps to find his rhythm on his second machine, by which time Márquez had gone.
Valentino Rossi benefitted from some Ducati mayhem
© Dorna Sports
Maverick Viñales looked on-course for his first MotoGP podium, but crashed out of third, leaving Ducati pairing Dovizioso and Iannone to take a clear shot at Rossi in second. They passed him with two laps to go, relegating the Yamaha rider to fourth.
However, in a twist, Iannone made a lunge up the inside of his team-mate Dovizioso on the final corner of the last lap, and lost the front. He wiped his colleague out, depriving them both of a podium finish and promoting Rossi and Pedrosa onto the rostrum. Dovizioso managed to push his bike across the line to take 13th.
Here’s what else we learned from the weekend…
Dani Pedrosa grabbed the final podium spot
© Repsol Honda
Andrea Iannone lives up to his nickname
He calls himself The Maniac, and if you ever wanted a 40-minute illustration of why, this race was it. He got into the first turn way too hot and nearly took out the Repsol Honda pairing of Márquez and Pedrosa, and then ended the race with another kamikaze move on fellow Ducati rider Dovizioso.
This year’s championship really is unpredictable
OK, Márquez winning a race doesn’t exactly sound like something unpredictable, but just about everything else that happened this weekend was; Lorenzo’s DNF, the weather adding more unpredictability, the Ducati debacle at the final corner, the tyreissues making it a flag-to-flag race, Rossi going from fourth to second in a split-second, moments before the chequered flag…
Dreams really do come true in the World Championship
In Moto3, Khairul Idham Pawi became the first Malaysian rider to win a grand prix, and he did it only his third GP start. The 17-year-old’s best finish in his two races prior to the Argentina GP was 22nd, in Qatar.
In MotoGP, EugeneLaverty finished fourth on the Aspar Ducati, his best-ever finish. He’s already nearly doubled his points tally for the entire 2015 season in just two races in 2016.
Image of the weekend
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