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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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