MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez won the Argentine Grand Prix on Sunday to maintain his 100 percent record for the season with three wins in three races.
The 21-year-old Spaniard, who fought back from a poor start at the new Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, became the first rider in 43 years to win the first three races in the premier category from pole position. The last racer to be so dominant at the start of a year was Italian Giacomo Agostini in 1971.
Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa finished second, with Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo taking third place to complete a Spanish sweep of the podium places.
Photo: AFP
Italian Valentino Rossi, who won the opening three 500cc races of the 2001 season and also triumphed in the 250cc category in Argentina in 1998, was fourth.
Marquez, who now has a maximum 75 points with Pedrosa on 56 and Rossi third with 41, had slipped to seventh place after being swallowed up by the field at the start as Rossi and Lorenzo hit the front.
However, his progress back through the field was relentless and he roared back into second place after four laps when Rossi ran wide.
Stalking Lorenzo, Marquez took the lead conclusively with nine of the 25 laps remaining and pulled away with a string of quick times.
“I saw Jorge opened some gap and thought: ‘OK, stop playing’ and I tried to push a little bit to catch Jorge. Then I stayed there and when there were nine laps left I started to push a little bit more because I thought Dani was coming,” Marquez said.
Pedrosa, who dropped from third to sixth on the opening lap, caught Lorenzo and passed him on the penultimate lap for second place.
The podium was Lorenzo’s first of the year and the double world champion looked happy afterward.
“I didn’t expect to stay so many laps in first position,” he said. “I thought Marquez wanted to go away from the beginning, but I made a good start. Then I made a mistake on the first lap and Valentino and Pedrosa passed me, but I did not want to stay behind so I passed them very quickly.”
“I kept pushing and pushing to try and save the second place, but it was impossible. Dani was half-a-second faster and when he passed me I couldn’t do so much,” Lorenzo said.
The race was the first MotoGP in Argentina since 1999 and first ever at the circuit.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was