Marquez' Brickyard Masterclass

Aug 9, 2015
4 min read

Marc Marquez continued his unbroken record in the United States with a fifth victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after a race long duel with Jorge Lorenzo.

The start was to be crucial as it was widely thought that Marquez would be able to shoot off into the distance. Lorenzo practised a move on the final sighting lap and got the hole shot at the start to lead his compatriot on the opening lap. From there began a real cat and mouse game.

Lorenzo and Marquez were setting a real hot pace in the opening few laps and broke away from the chasing pack immediately. Both too were setting near identical times. Surprisingly it was the Yamaha who was able to keep the much faster, at least going off practice performance, Honda. By the eight lap Lorenzo had extended the gap to four-tenths, managing to countermand the grunt of the RC213V by using the M1's cornering strengths to punch out of the final corner.

Two laps later and Marquez had closed the gap over the line to just 0.064s, but Lorenzo responded on the next tour and opened it back up to 0.2s. To throw a spanner into the works, two laps later the rain flag was flown. This prompted Marquez to mount his charge just in case the rain did fall. A new lap record followed – 1:32.625 – before a lunge for the lead at T1 with just three laps to journey.

The Spaniard pulled the pin and darted off into the distance, putting five-tenths of air between him and the Yamaha.

This marks Honda's 700th Grand Prix victory, the first coming back in 1961. But it'll be the implication on the championship fight that this result yields that will interest the reigning champion more. This win reels the gap to Valentino Rossi to 56 points – a not so insurmountable gap with eight races still to run.

Rossi will rue another missed opportunity as a result of a bad qualifying. The Italian was running similar, if not faster at some stages, times to the leading duo, indicating that had he gotten onto the second row on Saturday then maybe he'd have left with the win.

Nonetheless, this result sees him still nine point ahead of Lorenzo in the standings and maintain his tally of finishing every race so far on the rostrum. But despite his pace, this was not an easy race for the Yamaha rider.

Dani Pedrosa struggled in the early stages; the 2015 RC213V a difficult beast to manhandle on heavy fuel. And this allowed Rossi to close in and pass the former Indy winner at the second corner on lap 16.

Then the fuel came down and the bike lightened up, which allowed Dani to really wring its neck. Five laps later he re-passed the Italian at turn one, using the brute force of the Honda engine to tow his way past and edge ahead on the brakes. A small error on the following circulation at turn 10 allowed Rossi back through. 3rd place swapped hands again on the final lap, Pedrosa stealing it back at turn one once again.

Rossi, determined not let his championship lead be totally obliterated by Lorenzo, swooped by at turn nine and held on for the final third of the lap.

Andrea Iannone was the big mover at the start, climbing from 7th to 5th. There he remained, albeit not comfortably as Bradley Smith hounded him in the latter stages. The Tech 3 rider ended the day as top satellite rider once again.

He was followed home by his team-mate, Pol Espargaro, who spent much of his afternoon in the close attention of LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow. The Briton briefly lead the Spaniard after the pair diced over 7th in the opening sequence of corners. Espargaro was quick to react and held the Honda at bay.

Behind them was the second GP15 of Andrea Dovizioso who was in damage limitation mode following an off-track excursion at the second corner on the first lap. Danilo Petrucci completed the top ten to cap off a sterling weekend for the Pramac rider.

Suzuki's afternoon will be one to forget after Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro finished a lowly 11th and 14th. In a weekend expected to be tough, Suzuki did show a small glimmer of hope for a top 10 finish after qualifying, but it was not to be. They will have their eyes firmly fixed on the Czech round next weekend at a circuit which may favour them a little more.

Hector Barbera rounded out the points and finished top open rider, whilst Toni Elias made it to the end of his one-off Grand Prix appearance in last place.

Jack Miller was the only non-finisher. The Australian crashed out of proceedings on lap seven but was unhurt.

2015 Indianapolis Grand Prix: Result

1st Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

2nd Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

3rd Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

4th Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

5th Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team

6th Bradley Smith, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

7th Pol Espargaro, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

8th Cal Crutchlow, CWM LCR Honda

9th Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

10th Danilo Petrucci, Octo Pramac Racing Ducati