Two-time defending world champion Marc Marquez overtook countryman Jorge Lorenzo with less than three laps remaining to claim his third consecutive Indianapolis MotoGP victory on Sunday.
Spanish Honda rider Marquez covered the 27-lap, 112.6km Indianapolis Motor Speedway course in 41 minutes, 55.371 seconds, with Yamaha’s Lorenzo 0.688 seconds behind. Italian superstar Valentino Rossi finished third.
Rossi retains his lead in the world championship standings with a nine-point advantage over Yamaha teammate Lorenzo, 195 to 186.
Photo: EPA
Rossi edged out Dani Pedrosa in a tight battle for third place, just slipping past the Spanish Honda rider with one lap left to reach the podium.
Lorenzo led for much of the race, with Marquez right on his tail.
“I saw that Jorge was strong, and I was not able to go in front and to open a gap,” Marquez said.
“So I decided to stay behind him and try to attack in the end. In the beginning I was able to follow him, but then mid-race I was struggling a little bit. I was a half-second, six-tenths behind him, but then I saw that was the only chance to try to attack with two laps to try to surprise him... I pushed a lot on the last lap,” he said.
Counting 2011 and 2012 wins in the Moto2 category, Marquez has been victorious five times in a row at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Sunday’s victory made him the first three-time winner at the Indianapolis MotoGP.
He has also won the last two MotoGP races in Austin, Texas, as well as last year’s race in Laguna Seca, California.
Sunday’s victory was also the 22nd for Marquez in 46 MotoGP starts.
Lorenzo was the runner-up at the race for the second consecutive year. In eight starts at Indianapolis, he has never finished below fourth and Sunday’s trip to the podium was his sixth this season.
Rossi has finished on the podium in all 10 of his MotoGP races so far this season.
MOTO2
In the Moto2 race, pole sitter Alex Rins of Spain pulled ahead of Switzerland’s Dominique Aegerter with less than two laps remaining and rode his Kalex to the finish in 41:18.866.
Johann Zarco of France and Italy’s Franco Morbidelli passed Aegerter to finish second and third.
Rins’ margin over victory over Zarco was 0.482 seconds.
Aegerter settled for fourth place, with Spain’s Tito Rabat coming in fifth.
MOTO3
Sunday’s races got underway with Livio Loi’s win in the Moto3 race.
Loi started on the ninth row and took over the lead with 19 laps remaining.
Right behind Loi was Britain’s John McPhee and Germany’s Philipp Oettl.
Loi, on a Honda, covered the 23-lap course in 40:50.747 and finished ahead of McPhee by 38.860 seconds.
The 18-year-old Belgian won for the first time in his 34th Moto3 start.
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