Marc Márquez has taken his first victory of the season at Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina. The Catalan showed a great pace to win by 7 second over Valentino Rossi. Dani Pedrosa took the final step of the podium in a carnage race.
The 2016 Argentinean Grand Prix was shorter than it was expected due to the Michelin durability, which obligated the riders to do a mandatory motorbike change on laps 9 to 11.
At the start Jorge Lorenzo took the early lead despite contact with Márquez who drop to second. Dovizioso who was third on turn 1 overtook the Spaniards for the early lead. Pedrosa who started fourth drop to 15th after a slightly contact with Iannone.
The championship leader, Jorge Lorenzo had no pace today. Yamaha rider drop from first to sixth in two laps and four laps later crashed out at turn 1. Jack Miller, Aleix Espargaró and Cal Crutchlow crashed as well.
Before the motorbike change, Márquez and Rossi escaped from the Ducati’s as Daniel Pedrosa was coming back from 15th to sixth before the pit stop on lap 9.
On lap 10 Márquez and Rossi did his motorbike change but anything changed, Márquez kept the lead as He increase his pace to escape from Rossi and go straight to the victory.
So the battle for the race was for second position. Rossi didn’t showed a good pace with his second bike and rapidly was caught by Viñales and the Ducati’s.
Viñales caught Rossi with 7 laps to go. The Suzuki rider didn’t found the room to overtake “il doctore”, and one lap later crashed at turn 1. Scott Redding also retired after mechanical problems on his Pramac when he was riding sixth.
So it was all Italian battle for the podium positions. There was two intensify laps, when Iannone attacked Rossi for second place but Rossi managed to keep his compatriot behind them, but not Dovizioso who overtook both and escaped from them.
Iannone then overtook Rossi on last lap and tried to do the same on his mate in Ducati in the last corner. Iannone contact with the asphalt, and crashed into Dovizioso who lost an important second position.
Rossi take the advantage to finish second and Pedrosa third. Eugene Laverty finished in the important fourth place in front of Barberá and Pol Espargaró. Aprilia of Stefan Bradl was seventh in front of Smith and Rabat who takes his first points in MotoGP. Bautista A. Espargaró, Pirro and Dovizioso completes the top13 finishers.
With today’s win, Márquez takes the lead of the championship with 31 points, 8 more than Rossi who is second. Dani Pedrosa is third and Lorenzo fourth.
Yamaha is leading the Constructor championship by 4 points over Honda. In Team’s championship, Repsol Honda Team is leading the wat by 10 points over Movistar Yamaha MotoGP.
Next MotoGP Grand Prix will be held next week at the circuit of the Americas.
