Round 2 of the MotoGP championship was held in Argentina earlier today under somewhat complicated circumstances. Due to a problem that resulted in a Michelin tire used by Scott Redding (Ducati) during practice de-laminating, the race required riders to change tires (or bikes) between laps 9 and 11. Although none of the tires appeared to fail during the race, there were several crashes.
The winner of Round 1, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), got the holeshot, but quickly faded to 7th position before crashing out just prior to the tire/bike change. Marc Marquez (Honda) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) battled closely at the front before changing bikes on lap 10.
After the changeover, Marquez (who had saved his better bike for the second half of the race) quickly gapped Rossi, who was then caught by Suzuki’s Maverick Viñales and the two factory Ducatis ridden by Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Ianonne. After Viñales crashed out of a podium position, both factory Ducatis passed Rossi and appeared set to take the 2nd and 3rd spot on the podium behind Marquez. Two corners from the checkered flag, Ianonne aggressively dove under his teammate and low-sided, taking both Ducatis out and handing second place to Rossi. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) was well behind the leaders, but was gifted third place as a result of several crashes in front of him.
Marquez now leads the points. For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site. Here are the results:
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 168.4 | 34’13.628 |
| 2 | 20 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 167.8 | +7.679 |
| 3 | 16 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 166.2 | +28.100 |
| 4 | 13 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 165.5 | +36.542 |
| 5 | 11 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 165.5 | +36.711 |
| 6 | 10 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | SPA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 165.4 | +37.245 |
| 7 | 9 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 165.1 | +41.353 |
| 8 | 8 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 164.4 | +50.709 |
| 9 | 7 | 53 | Tito RABAT | SPA | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 164.4 | +50.983 |
| 10 | 6 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 163.6 | +1’01.388 |
| 11 | 5 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 163.0 | +1’08.868 |
| 12 | 4 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | ITA | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 162.2 | +1’18.987 |
| 13 | 3 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 161.1 | +1’33.419 |
| Not Classified | ||||||||
| 29 | Andrea IANNONE | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 167.8 | 1 Lap | ||
| 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | LCR Honda | Honda | 164.2 | 1 Lap | ||
| 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 167.5 | 3 Laps | ||
| 45 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 165.2 | 5 Laps | ||
| 76 | Loris BAZ | FRA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 161.7 | 8 Laps | ||
| 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 167.9 | 15 Laps | ||
| 43 | Jack MILLER | AUS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 166.8 | 17 Laps | ||
| 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 164.1 | 18 Laps | ||
See more of MD’s great photography:
I find it interesting that the bikes A to B are so different. It seems to me that these amazingly gifted engineers in this age of electronic wizardry and immense data acquisition should be able to set these bikes up as 1A and 1B. Maybe a tenth per lap between them. What am I missing here??
Great Race BTW – MM will win in this years championship………..
Looks like he has something to prove and smiles more than anyone I’ve seen on a motogp bike.
If Vinales were on a factory bike other than Suzuki he’d be a threat for the crown – certifiable Motogp star he is.
I will say the Suzook shows great promise – maybe a year out from serious consistent podium contention.
Crazy to see the speed difference of the bikes this year.
DUCATI………………………………………..SUZUKI / YAMAHA……….HONDA
Never thought I’d see the Honda as the slowest factory bike – CRAZY.
Dave, you have to wonder exactly how many bikes do these guys have? We know they are limited on motors, but do they have 1/2 dozen complete brand new bikes there less motors that they just swap the motors out into the next one, or do they just have spare parts to repair one when lets say someone goes down in practice and the bike hits the dirts and does 3 or 4 flips, or the rider endos and sends the bike flipping down the tarmac? If they are repairing flipped bikes ( and not just switching out motors into completely new bikes) I’m sure the frames, front ends, swingarms get tweaked a bit and could easily see where 2 bikes might not ride/ handle exactly the same. I’m also sure that one motor could have more laps on it than another motor and have slightly less power, one set of tires more laps than another set of tires, one set of brake pads a bit more worn etc on the back up bike.
Engineers can design great bikes, mechanics can be the best there are, but when a rider wads one up, even slightly, things change.
Thats a great point – crash damage – even slight could make a big difference at this level…….
Come on, Vinales. Get it together, man!
He’s 21 years old, most of the fast guys crashed a lot at that age.
Michelin tires may provide an interesting season….plus electronics…plus interesting italian riding style…
Man, you’re not kidding.
re: “Michelin tires may provide an interesting season”
of all the terms I can think up to describe an ever present risk of a delaminating tyre while punching through the double ton…? admittedly “interesting” isn’t the first that comes to mind.
ok, lets hear it then….
re: “ok, lets hear it then”
DANGER… (Will Robinson)
Michelin will get it together. They have been to this dance before.
Yeh, Bridgestone had its challenges, too. So many new variable to contend with this year.
I thought it was a great and interesting race. Rossi and Pedrosa were certainly gifted podiums. Pedrosa acted like it, subdued,unhappy with his performance, even though it was Iannone who pushed him wide at the start (and Ianonne also banged into Marquez knocking his rear camera off). Rossi acted like he earned it. As far as Iannone, that was a shame, I’m sure the young lad feels bad, but this happens in racing. Reminds me of another Italian named Simoncelli. Bulls in a china shop.Took him a few years to settle down as well.Poor Maverick such a ride only to lose it so close to the end. Marquez won that race pulling out of the pit lane after the bike change and putting a rider between himself and Rossi.
Crutchlow has to be wondering what happened to his life. He was showing such potential 3 or 4 years ago. Then he rode the dog Ducati and now he seems to eat a lot of dirt.
Maybe Lorenzo’s helmet was the problem lol.
An interesting race indeed, though Rossi did say in his interview that he wouldn’t have been on the podium had Iannone not removed Ducati from contention. So I think he was happy for the gift.
I don’t think Marquez’s win was the result of getting out in front of Rabat from the pit. Rossi couldn’t touch Marquez’s pace on the second half of the race on any lap. Marquez started out on his No. 2 bike and finished with his No. 1. Rossi did the opposite, but he just wasn’t as confident on his No. 2.
As far as Crutchlow goes, maybe Hayden can arrange a few meet and greets with some peeps as WSBK. He just can’t seem to make it happen. I really thought he would be one of the rising stars back before his Ducati days.
Don’t worry folks. Norm G will be along shortly to tell us all how is really is. Meantime…go MM!
enter Norm G. stage left. indubitably.
Might as well exit the same stage Norm G, because you’re full of it.
Ok, so who’s the fairest of them all? Rossi went out on his best bike first and knew he’d be switching to a unproven mount, whereas MM went out on his dog bike first and knew the best bike was waiting for him to finish the race on. Seems to me MM outsmarted Rossi in every sense of the word. I bet GiGi had some special words for Crazy Joe! JLo, ahem…., he seems to have a unresolved issue swimming in his head that’s clouding his focus.
I know they all have their #1 and #2 bikes, but do you really think a top-level team would knowingly allow as much difference between the two bikes as was obvious in the before-and-after with Rossi?
I don’t think Marquez being “smart” had anything to do with it.
Yes Sir, I do think that there is an obvious difference between two bikes, both MM & Rossi said so. MM knew his bike in the pits was better than the one he started on and Rossi said that his 2nd bike didn’t feel the same (good) as his first one. It must’ve been a huge confidence boost to MM, when he was dicing for the lead in the first half, knowing he had a better bike waiting for him. Just saying……..
I retract my earlier comment. Just went and looked at the lap-by-lap chart…I assumed most of the gap was due to Rossi’s bike getting slower in the second half, but it appears to have been mostly due to Marquez being faster on his second bike.
If you take the average of Rossi’s fastest 5 laps in the first half, versus MM’s fastest 5, it’s Rossi 1:41.035, Marquez 1:41.039.
Average of fastest five laps for each rider in second half: Rossi 1:41.039, Marquez 1:40.452. So Rossi’s just slightly slower, while Marquez picks up almost 6 tenths.
I call BS on the riders themselves. If these race sgfopa can’t even make two bikes that are the same then all the data capture they do is a waste of time and money. That on top of the fact that they tear down the bikes every week and change their setups from track to track? C’mon…
I suspect they are very much the same up to about a 97% clip. After that, I think the sum of all the little variances start to accumulate. It’s like anything else: to achieve that 1st X% is easy. But every point closer to perfect after that requires exponentially more effort.
Riders typically only need one bike for a race, so it makes sense for them to spend the vast majority of their limited time trying to perfect one bike while settling for close as possible on the second.
Poor Dovizioso. And people think Marquez is a lunatic.
Gotta feel bad for Vinales. He was looking solid until he dropped the front on that wet spot on the track. I guess my suspicion that Suzuki was dialing the engine back a little for the race distance is bollocks. The ‘Zook looked pretty strong.
Congrats to Marquez. He ran a great race from start to finish.
Maveric to Yamaha. What do you think Jeremy?
The talent is there. Now he needs to settle in and get some experience.
Mav definitely has the talent it seems. He was preparing an assault on Rossi before he took a dive and may well have passed him. Personally, I’d like to see Vinales stick with Suzuki and see them work things out together. But I think he is definitely on his way to earning a top tier machine from someone in the next couple of years.
yea I’d like to see him and Suzuki succeed together
Yamaha should absolutely make a run at him to take over Lorenzo’s seat and then get the Lowes twins on the Tech 21 bikes!
Er, Tech3 Yamaha.
no worries, 2+1 =’s 3.
Some old-school Suzuka reference right there… 👍
Is that an adderall dissolved on his tongue?
Haha!
Pedrosa is the big winner. Miller, Maverick, 2 Ducati, and I think Lorenzo all fell while in front of him. Maybe not Lorenzo.
I’m to lazy to go to tape, but Redding may have been in front of him as well. I like Pedrosa, I hope he figures the bike out.
While they may not have the stability part down just yet, Both Suzuki and Ducati riders being this close to the top 2 teams, bodes well for GP going forward.
MM wins a MotoGP, and as certain as the sun rises in the E, here we see posted frontal images of Honda’s team with their fingers in the air. The images are a bore, and tiring if not worse.
I’m not sure of the motivation, but if it’s paid Honda advertising masquerading as news, that’s extremely bad form. I don’t recall such phony, posed marketing images for the other brands when they win.
Yeesh. Gimme a break…
The publicity of a win is a very important part of the “should we spend this money on racing?” Equation.
Get real Pavalova. At leat we didn’t have to waste ten minutes of our lives watching an incredibly immature Rossi pantomime.
Racing exists at this level solely for marketing.
You don’t recall seeing crowds of people and dolled up girls surrounding the winner in other forms of racing? Are those images “spontaneous”?
I agree with Prov. I know it’s marketing, but bad form. Heavy bragging just rubs me the wrong way I guess. I does make your competition want to beat you even more however.
Thing is, unless I misunderstood his comment, he’s not criticizing Honda…he’s implying some sort of cozy relationship between this site and Honda.
Sure, you can almost hear them saying, “Motorcycle Daily number 1”!!! Right. I watched the winners of Moto 3 and Moto 2 take exactly the same picture.
Only recognition the crew that does all the mechanical work gets. They deserve it after a win. Can’t imagine being a crew member ( especially a Ducati crew member after yesterday..here we wadded up two of them for you to fix).
re: “I don’t recall such phony, posed marketing images for the other brands when they win.”
Aprilia were good for getting cheeky over in SBK.
I see it as more of a “in your face” to Rossi and fans.
“After the changeover, Marquez (who had saved his better bike for the second half of the race) quickly GAPED Rossi.”
Whoa! That’s taking it a little too NSFW far, dontchathink?
Well, I’m sure Rossi was gaping as Marquez ran away from him.
T.M.I.
Iannone is the biggest idiot of the season so far. Two races, two crashes, almost taking out his team mate in the first race and taking him out in the second race. I feel for Dovizioso having to put up with such a stupid team mate. He would have been in second overall, one point behind Marquez. And what happened to Lorenzo today to ride so far behind and then crash.
Past year he was also slow there.
It seems there’s something in that track affecting him, but what could be ?
re: “Iannone is the biggest idiot of the season so far. Two races, two crashes”
no sweat, like I said, you can only expect an “S-load” of tucked fronts this year. this (the 2nd race of the season) had a slew of what, 3…? 4…? 5…?
Q: how often does Jay tuck the front…?
A: almost never.
We’ll be seeing plenty of “WTF is up with my tires!” shenanigans play out this year, but Iannone’s incident(s) wasn’t tires. He was in Tomahawk missile mode.