MotoGP – GoPro Indianapolis GP – Race Results

After spending most of the race on Jorge Lorenzo’s back tire, Honda’s Marc Marquez managed to pull ahead in the final minutes of the Indianapolis GP to remain undefeated in American MotoGP starts.

The MotoGP standings are now close enough that a difference of one place across the finish line could make or break a winner.

Today at the Brickyard, the pressure was on Valentino Rossi, after a terrible performance in qualifying and an eight-place start. His Yamaha factory teammate Jorge Lorenzo led for much of the race, while Rossi battled with Honda factory rider Dani Pedrosa for third. For much of the race, it looked as if Lorenzo would win and Rossi would earn fourth, leaving the Doctor only a single point ahead of his teammate.

But it didn’t go down that way. Marquez got past Lorenzo on Lap 25, and Rossi got past Pedrosa two laps later, leaving the Yamaha riders to finish 2-3, mitigating the damage to Rossi’s grip on the standings.

Lorenzo rocketed past pole-positioned Marquez on the warmup lap, leaving commenters wondering if he’d forgotten it wasn’t a race start. But he repeated the performance on Turn 1, Lap 1, so whatever game he was playing worked. He was unpassed until Lap 25.

This is Marquez’s seventh straight GP win on American soil and his second in a row. While he’s still 56 points down on Rossi, he proved he can’t be counted out.  His switch the chassis used in 2014 seems to have been key to his renewed efforts.

Along with the tension over his lead in the standings, there was an element of personal pride spurring Rossi on past Pedrosa; Rossi hasn’t finished off the podium yet this year, and he’s kept that streak alive. Not bad for a rider all the critics wrote off during his time at Ducati.

Speaking of Ducati, Andrea Iannone finished in fifth; he’s lost his third-place spot in the standings to Marc Marquez, but there’s still no denying the remarkable turnaround of the Ducati team’s fortunes.

On the LCR Hondas, Cal Crutchlow dueled with Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) for seventh, but eventually was subdued to eighth, while Jack Miller crashed out — more bad luck for the rookie Aussie. It had been an interesting second row on the starting grid, with Crutchlow starting in fourth, Danilo Petrruci  (Pramac Ducati) in fifth and Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha) in sixth, behind Marquez, Pedrosa and Lorenzo respectively. Unfortunately for the satellite bikes, none of the riders were able to threaten the podium.