Marquez is Motogp’s youngest-ever winner
SPAIN’S Marc Marquez won the Grand Prix of the Americas on Sunday, becoming the youngest rider to win a race in the sport’s elite MotoGP series.
The 20-year-old Catalonian, last year’s Moto2 world champion, triumphed over his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, with Yamaha factory rider Jorge Lorenzo in third.
In MotoGP’s inaugural visit to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Marquez started from pole position in just his second MotoGP race, and finished 1.5 seconds ahead of Pedrosa. In third place, 3.4 seconds behind the leader, was Lorenzo, the reigning world champion and winner of the season-opening race in Qatar earlier this month.
Marquez had finished third in Qatar in his first MotoGP start and his qualifying performance on the new Circuit of the Americas made him the series’ youngest ever pole winner. He will go into the next race in Jerez, Spain, in two weeks atop the world championship standings – level with Lorenzo on 41 points. Marquez said he had not expected the victory to come so early in his MotoGP career.
“To be third in my first race in Qatar was a dream and now, to take the victory in the second race – that’s even better!” he added.
“The race was quite hard, especially in terms of physical condition towards the end.”
Lorenzo, a four-time MotoGP world champion, notched the 100th podium finish of his career – 10 years after posting his first with a win in Brazil in 2003.
“I never thought to get this unbe- lievable number of podiums so today is a magic day,” he said.
Offering his congratulations to Marquez, Lorenzo said: “He is a phenomenon.”
The top seven in Austin were rounded out by Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha), Stefan Bradl (Honda), Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati). Sapa-AFP