2019 Argentina MotoGP: Márquez storms to victory

In 2018, the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo track in Argentina played host to a scintillating battle between Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez. The Spaniard had to fight his way back to the front of the grid owing to a ride-through penalty; and an incident with Rossi led to another 30sec penalty that resulted in an 18th place finish for Márquez. This year, however, was a completely different story for both riders, with Márquez dominating the 2019 Argentina GP. Márquez finished over 9.8sec ahead of Rossi, who secured 2nd place after a tussle with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Starting on pole, Márquez made a near-perfect start and immediately built a lead. In latter stages of the race, this advantage stretched to over 12sec. His factory Honda teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, on the other hand, fell back to as far as 19th place before regaining places to finish in 17th place – the same position he started in.

With Márquez well ahead of the rest of the pack throughout the race, the battle for 2nd place saw the most action. Fresh from his Qatar GP win, Dovizioso spent most of the time fighting Rossi for 2nd place and had as many as five other riders chasing after them. One of them was Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who started in 16th place and put in a strong performance to finish 5th. His teammate Joan Mir had to retire from the race with just four laps to go.

Rossi's teammate Maverick Vinales looked set to take 7th place before being taken out by the Petronas SRT Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli on the last lap at Turn 7. With the incident taking both riders out of contention, factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci was promoted to 6th place.

Cal Crutchlow stood a chance to be part of the podium fight but was handed a ride-through penalty after jumping the start, and he could only recover to finish down in 13th. Johann Zarco finished 15th for the second race in a row while Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone was last to finish, at 17th. It was a day to forget for Avintia Ducati with both Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham crashing out.

After Argentina, Márquez sits at the top of the championship with 45 points, 4 points ahead of Dovizioso. 3rd in the championship is Valentino Rossi, with 31 points. The next race is set to take place on April 14, at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas.

Results

POS

RIDER

TEAM

LAPS

GAP

1

Marc Márquez

Honda

25

41m43.688s

2

Valentino Rossi

Yamaha

25

+9.816s

3

Andrea Dovizioso

Ducati

25

+10.530s

4

Jack Miller

Pramac Ducati

25

+12.140s

5

Alex Rins

Suzuki

25

+12.563s

6

Danilo Petrucci

Ducati

25

+13.750s

7

Takaaki Nakagami

LCR Honda

25

+18.160s

8

Fabio Quartararo

Petronas Yamaha

25

+20.403s

9

Aleix Espargaro

Aprilia

25

+25.292s

10

Pol Espargaro

KTM

25

+25.679s

11

Miguel Oliveira

Tech3 KTM

25

+25.855s

12

Jorge Lorenzo

Honda

25

+27.497s

13

Cal Crutchlow

LCR Honda

25

+31.398s

14

Francesco Bagnaia

Pramac Ducati

25

+32.893s

15

Johann Zarco

KTM

25

+33.372s

16

Hafizh Syahrin

Tech3 KTM

25

+35.545s

17

Andrea Iannone

Aprilia

25

+38.238s

-

Maverick Vinales

Avintia Ducati

24

Retirement

-

Franco Morbidelli

Petronas Yamaha

24

Retirement

-

Joan Mir

Suzuki

21

Retirement

-

Tito Rabat

Avintia Ducati

15

Retirement

-

Karel Abraham

Pramac Ducati

14

Retirement



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