Honda’s Marquez cruises to ‘boring’ Texas triumph

Registers second MotoGP win of season ahead of teammate Pedrosa.

AUSTIN: World champion Marc Marquez cruised to victory in the Grand Prix of the Americas on Sunday to register his second win in two races this season but admitted it was a boring triumph.

The Spaniard repeated his maiden Texas MotoGP success from 2013 when he also won from pole position.

Marquez, who won the season-opener in Qatar last month despite breaking his leg four weeks earlier, finished 4.174 seconds ahead of Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso taking third place, a huge 20 seconds off the lead.

“I am so thrilled with this victory,” said Marquez. “The start was good and the 25 points important for the team even if the race was a little boring.”

In a dramatic start, the 2010 and 2012 world champion Jorge Lorenzo had a jump start from fifth on the grid.

The Spaniard had to endure a compulsory ride-through the pit lane on his factory Yamaha at the end of the first lap.

At the front, Marquez charged away from the field and was never threatened, keeping Pedrosa in second place.

Italy’s Andrea Iannone on a Ducati carved his way through the field from ninth place and settled into third in the early stages.

Valentino Rossi, on the second factory Yamaha and who was runner-up in Qatar behind Marquez, was fourth at the halfway mark after passing Dovizioso, Stefan Bradl and Cal Crutchlow.

But the veteran Italian slipped back down the field as he struggled with grip on his front tyre.

Such were his problems that even the satellite Yamaha riders of Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith comfortably swept past him.

Marquez’s lead over Pedrosa had grown to five seconds with four laps to go while Dovizioso, who had started in 10th, was up to third.

Rossi was eventually eighth, 45 seconds off the pace, while Lorenzo fought his way back to 10th place.

The nine-time world champion earned eight points to give him a total of 28, dropping him to third on the overall standings.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2014.

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