Argentina MotoGP: Vinales leads Rossi home as Marquez crashes
Maverick Vinales scored a second successive MotoGP victory in Argentina, taking advantage of a crash for early leader Marc Marquez to win by three seconds from Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi
Poleman Marquez established a cushion of more than two seconds as he led the first three laps for Honda.
But his charge came to an abrupt end as he lost the front end of the RC213V - which he fitted with a hard front tyre and a medium rear - at Turn 2 on lap four.
That gifted the advantage to Vinales, who from sixth on the grid had made his way up to third on the opening lap before clearing Cal Crutchlow's LCR Honda for second on lap three.
From there, it was plain sailing for Vinales as he repeated his victory from the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix a fortnight ago.
Crutchlow and Rossi battled for second in his wake, with the Yamaha shadowing the LCR Honda for a number of laps before Rossi finally made his move at Turn 5 with six laps left.
Though Crutchlow kept close company with Rossi, he had to settled for third behind a Yamaha one-two as Vinales won by 2.915s.
Alvaro Bautista was a surprise fourth for Aspar Ducati, helped by Dani Pedrosa crashing at the same spot as team-mate Marquez 10 laps after the champion's fall.
Johann Zarco finished fifth, ahead of Tech3 Yamaha team-mate Jonas Folger - who passed Danilo Petrucci's Pramac Ducati on the penultimate lap.
It was a miserable day for the works Ducatis, starting when Jorge Lorenzo crashed at the first corner after making contact with the Suzuki of Andrea Iannone.
Lorenzo's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso found himself taken out by another rider for a second year in a row in Argentina, as Aleix Espargaro lost the front end of his Aprilia at Turn 5 and skittled into Dovizioso.
Qualifying star Karel Abraham fell back to finish 10th, his first top-10 finish since 2012, behind Scott Redding and Jack Miller.
KTM scored a double-points finish in its second race as a full MotoGP manufacturer, as Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith rounded out the scorers in 14th and 15th.
Iannone trailed them in 16th after serving a ride-through for jumping the start - an error that compounded a dismal outing for Suzuki, as Alex Rins crashed out.
RESULTS - 25 LAPS:
Pos | Rider | Team | Bike | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Maverick Vinales | Yamaha | Yamaha | 41m45.060s |
2 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Yamaha | 2.915s |
3 | Cal Crutchlow | LCR Honda | Honda | 3.754s |
4 | Alvaro Bautista | Aspar Ducati | Ducati | 6.523s |
5 | Johann Zarco | Tech3 Yamaha | Yamaha | 15.504s |
6 | Jonas Folger | Tech3 Yamaha | Yamaha | 18.241s |
7 | Danilo Petrucci | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 20.046s |
8 | Scott Redding | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 25.480s |
9 | Jack Miller | MVDS Honda | Honda | 25.665s |
10 | Karel Abraham | Aspar Ducati | Ducati | 26.403s |
11 | Loris Baz | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 26.952s |
12 | Tito Rabat | MVDS Honda | Honda | 41.875s |
13 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 42.770s |
14 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | KTM | 43.085s |
15 | Bradley Smith | KTM | KTM | 43.452s |
16 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | Suzuki | 46.219s |
- | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati | Retirement |
- | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | Aprilia | Retirement |
- | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | Honda | Retirement |
- | Sam Lowes | Aprilia | Aprilia | Retirement |
- | Alex Rins | Suzuki | Suzuki | Retirement |
- | Marc Marquez | Honda | Honda | Retirement |
- | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | Ducati | Retirement |
RIDERS' STANDINGS:
Pos | Rider | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Maverick Vinales | 50 |
2 | Valentino Rossi | 36 |
3 | Andrea Dovizioso | 20 |
4 | Scott Redding | 17 |
5 | Cal Crutchlow | 16 |
6 | Jonas Folger | 16 |
7 | Jack Miller | 15 |
8 | Marc Marquez | 13 |
8 | Alvaro Bautista | 13 |
10 | Dani Pedrosa | 11 |
10 | Johann Zarco | 11 |
12 | Aleix Espargaro | 10 |
13 | Danilo Petrucci | 9 |
14 | Loris Baz | 9 |
15 | Karel Abraham | 8 |
16 | Alex Rins | 7 |
17 | Hector Barbera | 6 |
18 | Jorge Lorenzo | 5 |
19 | Tito Rabat | 5 |
20 | Pol Espargaro | 2 |
21 | Bradley Smith | 1 |
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