Austin MotoGP: Marc Marquez extends winning streak for Honda

Marquez won at the circuit in his 2013 and '14 championship seasons, and made it three in a row with a dominant performance.

The race was delayed just moments before the scheduled start, due to water patches being spotted beneath a Turn 3 footbridge, following overnight rain.

When the race eventually got under way 35 minutes later, Andrea Dovizioso beat the polesitter off the line to take the lead into Turn 1, with Marquez settling in behind the Ducati.

Dovizioso initially skipped away from the pack, but was quickly pegged back by Marquez, who then moved into the lead on lap five.

From there, the Spaniard controlled the race, quietly but effectively building a lead.

By the time Valentino Rossi also found a way past Dovizioso three laps later, Marquez was 1.8 seconds clear.

The lead grew to as much as 4.1s, before Marquez eventually crossed the line with a margin of 2.3s.

That meant all eyes were on the fight for second, with Rossi and Dovizioso barely separated, a fortnight after their frenetic fight for victory in Qatar.

Rossi kept Dovizioso at bay through the middle phase of the race, but the Yamaha rider's resistance ended with six laps remaining, when Dovizioso got the better run out of Turn 2 and slipped back past at Turn 3.

With third, Rossi maintains the championship lead by a single point.

Andrea Iannone also featured in the fight for second, but his challenge faded in the closing laps and he eventually lost fourth place to Jorge Lorenzo.

The factory Ducatis of Iannone and Dovizioso stopped on the cooldown lap, in the first race since their fuel allowance was reduced from 24 litres to 22.

Bradley Smith made a lightening start from 10th on the grid to fifth, and he ran comfortably in the group behind Marquez before finishing sixth ahead of compatriot Cal Crutchlow.

Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Danilo Petrucci completed the top 10, while Hiroshi Aoyama was 11th, deputising for Dani Pedrosa.

Aprilia scored the first point of its MotoGP comeback with 15th for Alvaro Bautista, as team-mate Marco Melandri retired from last with a gear selection problem.

After qualifying sixth, Scott Redding had a wild moment through Turn 5 on the opening lap and his race effectively ended just five corners later.

He fell and collected Pol Espargaro on the outside of Turn 10, with the damage on both bikes proving terminal, while Stefan Bradl and Yonny Hernandez also crashed out of the race.

RESULTS - 21 LAPS:

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: