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Marc Marquez finished this one off in style, taking his 5th straight victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the United States of America. He displayed a stellar performance all through qualifying, with a nearly error-free session at qualifying yesterday ahead of today’s race.
The double world champion has won at the venue across categories for the past 5 years in a row, and earlier at qualifying took his third consecutive pole position.
The Repsol Honda driver is currently at 3rd in the MotoGP riders’ standings, which are led by 6-time world champion Valentino Rossi of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP.
In typical fashion, Rossi began this Grand Prix slowly. With qualifying long known to be his Achilles’ Heel, the Italian qualified in Row 3, beginning race day in 8th position. Today saw an intense battle between Rossi and Dani Pedrosa, who is Marquez’s teammate at Repsol Honda.
Pedrosa had ensured a Honda 1-2 at Qualifying, beginning today’s race just behind his compatriot and teammate. Most eyes were on Rossi and Pedrosa as the Italian fought tooth and nail to ensure a podium spot, executing an extremely tight overtake towards the end of the race to hold on to third. The two riders were separated by 0.2 seconds.
Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who is 2nd in the championship standings, finished this race in second. The Spaniard has had a very good 2015 season, winning 4 races on the trot earlier. He qualified in third behind the two Repsol Honda teammates, and said at the time that he had been very happy with his performance then.
The standings for the 2015 riders’ championship remain largely unchanged. Valentino Rossi, with a scorcher of a 2015 season, continues to lead, followed closely by teammate Lorenzo. Ducati’s Andrea Iannone follows them in the standings, and finished this grand prix in 5th behind Pedrosa.
Although Marquez is still in contention for the drivers’ championship at the end of the year, he will need to win nearly every race in order to take the title a third year in a row. Given the form that Valentino Rossi is in, however, this seems an unlikely proposition.
Rain threatened to disrupt proceedings at the race, with teams readying their wet-tyre vehicles. The inclement weather was gone as soon as it began, however.
Following the race, Rossi described himself as “satisfied” with his performance in what he called a “tough” race.
Rossi is now at 195 points, with Yamaha teammate Lorenzo catching him up at 186. Their closest competitor, reigning 2013 and 2014 champion Marquez, is at 139 56 points behind the leader.
The next race will be the Czech Grand Prix at Brno.
