Marc Marquez has become the youngest premier class winner in Grand Prix history after proving too strong for his teammate Dani Pedrosa at the Circuit of the Americas. The two Repsol Hondas were comfortably clear of third placed Jorge Lorenzo with Marquez grabbing the lead eight laps from the finish before easing away in the latter stages.
Marquez made a terrific start to reach the summit of turn one in the lead but the rookie outbraked himself and slid wide, falling to third behind Pedrosa and Stefan Bradl. Marquez wouldn’t wait long before passing his former Moto2 rival though while Lorenzo also demoted the German before the end of lap one, recovering the place he’d lost following a poor start.
Despite clearing the LCR Honda, Lorenzo was powerless to prevent Pedrosa and Marquez breaking away and the two teammates were left to scrap amongst themselves for the race victory. Dani held his younger compatriot at bay with relative ease in the early stages but it soon became apparent that Marquez was finding it just as easy to keep up with him.
On lap thirteen, Marc went on the attack and scythed past Dani into turn seven, not a corner many saw as a potential overtaking spot, but the move was decisive and ruthless. Pedrosa wasn’t going to give him an easy run to his first victory though but a mistake on lap eighteen cost him a second which was all the advantage the youngster needed to make history. By winning the Grand Prix of the Americas, Marquez broke Freddie Spencer’s 31 year old record as the youngest race winner in the history of the premier class.
After sliding off track on lap four, Cal Crutchlow had his work cut out chasing down Bradl for fourth but the Briton succeeded in his task thanks to an error from the German five laps later. Crutchlow’s pace on the satellite Yamaha was sensational once he had clear track ahead of him and he would go on to finish just three seconds behind Lorenzo’s factory machine, and six away from the winner.
Valentino Rossi rode a lonely race to sixth ahead of Andrea Dovizioso who got the better of Alvaro Bautista on the penultimate lap to snatch seventh. Nicky Hayden was the next Ducati home in ninth after overcoming the early challenge of Andrea Iannone but the Pramac rider would still take tenth. Aleix Espargaro would cap a fine weekend with eleventh ahead of Bradley Smith who claimed his first MotoGP points in twelfth but Michael Laverty would miss out as Ben Spies, Randy de Puniet and his Paul Bird teammate Yonny Hernandez completed the top fifteen.
