By Dan Moakes
August 30 2013

Surely a Spanish rider is going to win the 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship, which would be just the fourth premier class title for that nation; but is a top level rookie already on course to unseat his established compatriots? Marc Márquez was the man in front after nine races.

Round ten was at the famous Indianapolis venue, where Márquez had won twice as a Moto2 rider, and with his current Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa also a past double winner. The works Yamaha duo, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, had also both been race winners at Indy. For this latest event, both Lorenzo and Pedrosa were somewhere close to being back at full fitness, with the latter just a bit further behind in his recovery. However, Pramac Ducati rider Ben Spies, back after an extended layoff, managed to hurt his shoulder in a crash at the turn four left-hander during practice; and he was therefore unable to make his racing return.

Other riders to crash during the practice sessions included Stefan Bradl and Aleix Espargaró, both of whom therefore were not as far up the order in qualifying as might have been expected. Lorenzo and Pedrosa were back on the front row of the starting grid, but second man Lorenzo was 0.5s behind pole man Márquez, with Pedrosa third of the Spaniards. More Yamaha and Honda riders followed on, with the Tech 3 pair of Cal Crutchlow (fourth) and Bradley Smith (seventh) both ahead of the full factory Yamaha of Rossi (ninth). On Honda machinery, Álvaro Bautistá was fifth for the Gresini team, with Bradl eighth for the LCR team.

Ducati riders were in the news, Crutchlow now confirmed with a two-year works contract, and current incumbent Nicky Hayden being linked to the LCR team for 2014. On track, Hayden qualified sixth, with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso back in tenth. Pramac’s sole representative was Andrea Iannone in P11. Meanwhile, the CRT contingent was led by Colin Edwards, in a best-yet P12 on his Forward Racing FTR-Kawasaki. Espargaró was one place behind him on the Aspar ART.

Leading the rest was Danilo Petrucci (IodaRacing), from Randy de Puniet (Aspar), Claudio Corti (Forward Racing), Héctor Barberá (Avintia), Michael Laverty (Bird Motorsport), Hiroshi Aoyama (Avintia), Bryan Staring (Gresini), Yonny Hernández (Bird Motorsport), Lukáš Pešek (IodaRacing), and finally wildcard runner Blake Young, in a second outing on the Attack Performance APR-Kawasaki. Unfortunately, the 25-year-old would crash on the first lap.

The reshuffle away from the start line for the race saw Lorenzo leading Pedrosa, Márquez, Smith, Crutchlow, Bautistá, Bradl, Hayden, Rossi, Dovizioso, Iannone and Edwards, who would soon lose out to Espargaró; and then it was Corti, de Puniet, Petrucci, Hernández, Barberá, Laverty, Aoyama and Staring. Smith would not be able to maintain fourth for long, quickly losing out to his team-mate with an inside pass on their next approach to the left-hander at turn one, where the GP track runs infield of the oval banking.

Smith would next lose fifth position to Bautistá as the Honda rider powered to the outside along the main straight across the start-finish line. Bradley could not hold the Spaniard’s pace, and would soon fall into the clutches of Bradl and be put back to seventh, with Rossi the next threat from behind. Meanwhile, Lorenzo had good initial speed and opened a bit of an advantage almost straight away, but with Pedrosa gradually responding and apparently regaining ground under braking, all the time with Márquez right on his tail.

Bradl tagged on behind the leading group of five, but without quite matching the pace and therefore dropping steadily away. Crutchlow and Bautistá ran fourth and fifth, but soon enough the pace ahead was too strong for them to stay in touch. Álvaro took over from Cal with a move in the braking zone for the turn ten left-hander, with Bradl just about close enough for this to be a three-man group as the leaders ran away. By now, Rossi was up to seventh, with the Ducati pair of Hayden and Dovizioso also past Smith, and with Iannone in P11.

The battle of the Spaniards had seen Márquez pressurising second man Pedrosa, and he was able to get past, firing out of the turn six left-hander and going for the inside of the turn seven right-hander. Marc then moved into position behind Lorenzo, and this time it was on the outside of the longer turn one that he used his momentum so as to pass on the inside for the tighter right at turn two. With a new fastest lap that broke the MotoGP track record, the 20-year-old began to cause the gaps between the leaders to extend.

Even when sliding the Honda at some places, Márquez was now able to pull clear of his rivals. With eight laps to go he was 1.0s ahead, and this would go out to over 2.0s as he made it three wins in a row, three wins in the USA, and four in total from a ten-race MotoGP career. The later stages saw Pedrosa on the attack behind Lorenzo, right behind again with three laps to go. He went past for second by using the slipstream along the main straight and taking the inside line on the approach to turn one. Jorge could not match Dani’s pace but took a comfortable third place.

There was a sustained dispute for fourth between Crutchlow and Bautistá, as they took turns at being in front. But all the time Rossi was catching sixth man Bradl, and the Italian got past on the inside at turn seven before homing in on the pair ahead. Crutchlow was the lead man when Rossi made his next move, overtaking Bautistá on the inside at turn six. Next, Valentino went for a move on Cal at turn seven, but this time ran wide and allowed the Englishman space to take back the place. It went right down to the finish and the final pair of corners, a right and an immediate left. Rossi made his move at the first of these, just securing fourth ahead of Crutchlow then Bautistá. Bradl was seventh.

There had been another battle over eighth place, with Hayden racing at home and therefore aiming to get the better of team-mate Dovizioso. Nicky had retaken the spot, but a final challenge came right at the flag, in the left at turn sixteen. When the two red bikes clashed, both men found themselves running towards the outside of the track and the banking, enough to allow the following Smith to jump them both in a close call, with Hayden at least making it home in front of Andrea. Iannone rounded out the finishers on the full prototype machines in P11.

The retirements beyond that of Young had been firstly with de Puniet stopping in the pits, then Pešek doing likewise, and Hernández sidelined with a mechanical problem of his own. Aoyama made the most progress of the CRT runners, moving up to take P15 and the last point, behind Espargaró, Edwards and Corti; and followed by non-scorers Barberá, Petrucci, Laverty and Staring.

Marc Márquez was on a roll, with maybe not-quite-fully-fit Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo doing their best to limit the damage by taking the runner-up positions on the day. But of course it only takes one mistake from an inexperienced rider to wipe out a 21-point advantage, or to seriously dent a 35-point advantage. So there is all to play for as the riders return to Europe, and nothing can be taken for granted. The season to date has certainly proved to anything but predictable, so what will we see in the next chapter?

Standings after ten races: Márquez 188; Pedrosa 167; Lorenzo 153; Rossi 130; Crutchlow 127; Bradl 93; Dovizioso 87; Bautistá 81; Hayden 72; Smith 59 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 226; Yamaha 204; Ducati 90; ART 58; FTR-Kawasaki 34; Ioda Suter-BMW 18; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.