In the land of Longhorns, Spanish rider Marc Marquez hooked ’em again at the Circuit of the Americas.
The reigning MotoGP world champion won for the second year in a row at the immaculate Texas road course, dusting Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, third-place Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso, and everybody else in today’s Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas.
A last-lap bobble going into the final corner added a brief jolt of drama, but Marquez quickly got his Honda under control and went on to the checkered flag.
He beat Pedrosa to the stripe by 4.1 seconds, while Dovizioso was a very distant third at 20.9 seconds off the pace.
“I didn’t expect to lead all the laps in the race,” Marquez said after the race to Fox Sports. “I had a good start – my first good start in MotoGP [grins] – and then I started to push…I saw that I opened a gap and while I think the show for this race was not so good, that 25 points is important.”
Pedrosa on the other hand found himself losing, by his estimation, two to three-tenths a lap to his fellow Spaniard and eventually just focused on maintaining second.
“I had no other places to recover the gap,” he said. “Every lap, I lost a little, so finally, there was a point where there was nothing to win up front…I just tried to keep my pace and get on the podium.”
Honda rider Stefan Bradl duked it out late with Yamaha rider Bradley Smith for fourth position, but the German ultimately got the better of the Englishman for that spot.
As for the two American competitors, Nicky Hayden finished just outside of the Top 10 in 11th position while “Texas Tornado” Colin Edwards was forced to retire from the race before the checkered flag.
Marquez now holds a 14 point lead in the championship over Pedrosa after two races, both of which he’s won. Valentino Rossi sits third at 22 points back after an eighth-place finish this afternoon.
MotoGP will return to action in two weeks at Termas de Rio Hondo, Argentina.
