By Dan Moakes
May 3 2013

The factory Yamaha team had kick-started the 2013 MotoGP World Championship with first and second places in Qatar, as the champion Jorge Lorenzo led home returnee Valentino Rossi; and with Honda’s works riders having to give best to the YZR-M1 pair.

Round two of the series, the Grand Prix of the Americas, saw an all-new venue in the United States - a country that has hosted world championship races at three different tracks over the years. The first US GP races were at Daytona, in 1964 and 1965, with Mike Hailwood twice the 500cc winner for MV Agusta. Laguna Seca was subsequently the main home for the race, which reappeared on the calendar in 1988, and it has been held there in each consecutive year since 2005. A separate event at the famous Indianapolis circuit has been run in each of the last five seasons.

The new track is located in Austin, Texas, and is called the Circuit of the Americas; it had been inaugurated in 2012 as the latest home of Formula One in the US. There is a long and fast back straight, a few elevation changes and twenty corners, including some flowing sections and the odd tight hairpin. Very few of the MotoGP riders had been able to test out the new facility pre-season, namely the works-backed Honda and Yamaha men and satellite rider Bradl.

Qualifying saw Honda back on top this time, and history was made as the Repsol team’s newcomer became the youngest rider ever in the premier GP class to take pole position. 20-year-old Marc Márquez was quicker than experienced team-mate Dani Pedrosa as the pair tied up the first two slots, with the customer Honda riders also in the top seven. Marc’s achievement was despite a crash in practice. Stefan Bradl was fifth for the LCR team, with Álvaro Bautistá seventh for the Go & Fun-backed Gresini team. For the race, Márquez and Bradl would both opt for the harder compound Bridgestone rear tyre.

Lorenzo was once again Yamaha’s quickest man, qualifying third, and with Rossi back in eighth position. Also familiar was the position of Tech 3’s customer Yamaha team leader Cal Crutchlow, who was close behind Lorenzo - this time in fourth. Team-mate Bradley Smith was in P11. The Tech 3 garage had been affected by a fire and then a dousing from the sprinklers. The leading Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso was placed sixth, with Nicky Hayden in tenth on the second red machine. The Pramac customer bikes were in P12 and P13, with Ben Spies heading Andrea Iannone.

In ninth place, and therefore in front of four of the pure prototype racing motorcycles, was CRT leader Aleix Espargaró, riding the Aspar-entered ART bike. This matched his previous best MotoGP qualifying position, from when he was riding a customer Ducati in 2010. Team-mate Randy de Puniet was behind Iannone in P14. The first of the FTR-Kawasaki brigade was next, with Héctor Barberá in P15 for the Avintia team. Hiroshi Aoyama was in P21 on the team’s second bike, and the Forward Racing pair of Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti were in positions 18 and 19.

Paul Bird’s two riders were between Barberá and Edwards, with Yonny Hernández on the ART ahead of Michael Laverty on the PBM-ART. The Came Ioda Suter-BMW riders Danilo Petrucci and Lukáš Pešek were in twentieth and 23rd positions respectively, with Bryan Staring in P22 on the Gresini FTR-Honda. Last man on the grid in P24 was wildcard entry Blake Young on the Attack Performance APR-Kawasaki, the 25-year-old being a regular race winner in the AMA Superbike championship. Karel Abraham had been the slowest man of all on the Cardion AB ART, but he would not be racing due to a broken collarbone sustained in a clash with Staring.

The race started with a customarily good getaway from Pedrosa, taking the lead but then being challenged for the position by Márquez at the first corner. The younger man got through but then ran wide and lost out to both Pedrosa and Bradl, in a Honda one-two-three. Lorenzo was fourth, from Crutchlow, Rossi, Dovizioso, Bautistá, Espargaró and Hayden. Márquez moved ahead of Bradl again on the back straight and there were further early changes involving Bautistá and Dovizioso, and also Lorenzo and Bradl.

Before long, the first three were beginning to pull away from their pursuers, with Lorenzo setting fastest lap in his chase behind the Honda duo. Meanwhile, Bautistá had been on the attack behind Rossi at the start of lap two, then getting past on the inside at a left-hander. Third place was being disputed by Bradl and Crutchlow, but the Englishman ran wide at a left-hand corner, rejoining as part of a four-way contest: behind Bautistá and ahead of Rossi and Dovizioso.

Iannone had been quick to take over as the next man, in ninth, from Hayden, Espargaró, Spies, Hernández, Smith, de Puniet, Petrucci, Corti, Pešek, Aoyama, Edwards, Barberá and Staring; and with Laverty overtaking Young to move out of last position. Crutchlow’s efforts to regain his station soon took him past Bautistá and chasing Bradl, leaving the Spaniard defending from Rossi, who took two attempts but got through.

At the front it was all Repsol Honda, with Pedrosa and Márquez leaving Lorenzo three seconds in arrears. Crutchlow resumed his status as best of the satellite team runners when he overtook Bradl on the inside of the right-hander at turn seven, and from there he proceeded to move clear of the German. Behind, Rossi moved out of range from Bautistá, who was also passed by Dovizioso on the inside at a left-hander, with Álvaro losing ground but remaining ahead of Hayden. Edwards retired to the pits at this stage.

With nine laps left to run, Márquez made his move on Pedrosa, getting the better run out of a right-hand corner and getting the inside position for the following left. Dani stayed on the youngster’s tail, a couple of times regrouping when he first closed in and had to dodge onto a wider line, and then following a bit of a rear slide. Marc’s spectacular elbow-down cornering style had given him only a 0.4s advantage with five laps to go, but a couple of laps later he had started to pull away. On the final lap he was a second to the good, with Pedrosa unable to respond - he would cite problems with the strength in his left arm - and Márquez therefore became a premier class GP winner at just his second attempt.

Lorenzo maintained third unchallenged, with Crutchlow taking a strong fourth, then Bradl, Rossi, Dovizioso, Bautistá, Hayden and Iannone. Meanwhile, Smith had passed Hernández early on and then got the better of Spies, who was riding in pain; but the men on Yamaha and Ducati machinery were both headed by CRT leader Espargaró, as they had been throughout the race. Aleix took eleventh, from Smith, Spies, de Puniet, Hernández, Laverty, Aoyama, Barberá, Corti, Staring and Young. The Ioda riders both failed to finish, with Pešek crashing out.

The achievement of Marc Márquez was not just in winning his second ever MotoGP race, taking to the top step of the podium earlier than anyone since Max Biaggi in 1998; but it also made him the youngest winner of a premier class GP. Freddie Spencer, the previous holder of that honour, had secured his first 500cc victory in July 1982, aged twenty years, five months and fourteen days. Márquez had achieved the same feat on the 1000cc Honda aged just twenty years, two months and four days. He straight away seemed to confirm his status as a potential title contender in only his first season, perhaps at the expense of team-mate Dani Pedrosa. But between them they took Honda’s tally of podium results in the class to 700. Will it be Yamaha’s turn again next time?

Standings after two races: Lorenzo and Márquez 41; Pedrosa 33; Rossi 30; Crutchlow 24; Bautistá and Dovizioso 18; Hayden 15; Iannone 13; Bradl 11 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Yamaha and Honda 41; Ducati 18; ART 10; FTR-Kawasaki 3.