Austin MotoGP: Marc Marquez takes record victory in second start

The Spaniard was pushed all the way by his works Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, with the pair rarely separated by more than half a second.

Three laps from the finish however Pedrosa suddenly dropped more than one second, allowing Marquez precious breathing space at the front.

He duly converted that into a first premier class victory at only his second attempt, and at the age of 20 years, two months and four days. He is now the joint points leader, level with last year's champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Pedrosa had moved to the front as the field made its way through Turn 1 for the first time, and continued to lead until Marquez slipped up the inside at Turn 7 after half-distance.

He initially stuck with his younger stablemate, even coming close to running into the back of him under braking, but ultimately had to settle for second.

Yamaha's Lorenzo was only able to keep up with the works Hondas for the first five laps before slowing dropping away.

His deficit stabilised at around 3s however, a gap he preserved until the finish.

Yamaha's Tech 3 satellite rider Cal Crutchlow claimed fourth, three seconds down the road.

The Briton had been stuck behind LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl in the early stages, but eventually picked his way past on lap nine and was largely able to match the lead trio's pace thereafter.

Bradl was fifth ahead of a relatively lonely ride from Valentino Rossi on the second works Yamaha.

Rossi had earlier been battling with Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and the final satellite Honda of Alvaro Bautista.

While the Italian was able to pull clear, Dovizioso and Bautista remained locked in battle right up until the flag.

The Ducati eventually prevailed by just under half a second.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                Time/Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                  43m42.123s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    + 1.534s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                   + 3.381s
 4.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha            + 6.616s
 5.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               + 12.674s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  + 16.615s
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  + 22.374s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           + 22.854s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  + 33.773s
10.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           + 42.112s
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia           + 48.837s
12.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           + 50.705s
13.  Ben Spies         Pramac Ducati         + 1m14.132s
14.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         + 1m15.651s
15.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           + 1m19.591s
16.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           + 1m34.391s
17.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  + 1m39.823s
18.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  + 1m39.952s
19.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  + 1m46.773s
20.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     + 1m48.084s
21.  Blake Young       Attack APR-Kawasaki       + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW            13 laps
     Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW            13 laps
     Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki      11 laps