Marc Marquez claimed back-to-back victories for the first time all season after beating Jorge Lorenzo in a race-long head-to-head in Indianapolis. The world champion shadowed Lorenzo throughout a tense race before hitting the front with three laps to go and holding off the Yamaha in the run to the chequered flag.
With championship leader Valentino Rossi back on the third row, there was every incentive for Lorenzo to chase maximum points and he made a typically blistering start to grab the holeshot, leading Marquez and Dani Pedrosa through the opening sequence of corners. Rossi made slight headway, climbing to sixth, and after making short work of Bradley Smith’s Yamaha and Andrea Iannone’s Ducati, ‘The Doctor’s was giving chase to Dani’s third-placed Honda.
As spots of rain started to fall, Rossi piled the pressure on the no.26 machine and with ten laps remaining, the Italian dived through at turn two. Pedrosa, not known for his prowess in changeable conditions, launched a counter-attack on the penultimate lap, breezing past the no.46 down the pit straight but another late braking manoeuvre at turn two saw Rossi regain third, a position he would hold to the finish line.
The fight for the lead was equally competitive but Marquez would eventually make the decisive move on lap 25, slipstreaming past the no.99 Yamaha into turn one. With Jorge unable to fight back, Marc took the victory by 0.6s with Rossi finishing just one place behind his teammate, limiting the damage to his championship lead.
Pedrosa was fourth with Iannone holding off Smith for fifth while Pol Espargaro got the better of Cal Crutchlow for seventh, the LCR rider not helping his own cause with a mistake on the first lap which dropped him to eleventh. Andrea Dovizioso made an even bigger error at the same corner which left him at the tail of the field but the Ducati rider still recovered to ninth, beating Danilo Petrucci in the closing stages.
2015 RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GRAND PRIX – RACE RESULT (27 LAPS)
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