Repsol Honda's Marquez & Pedrosa Finish 1-2 at MotoGP Round 3 in Argentina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press Release www.repsolhondateam.com Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina Round 3 - Sunday, April 27th 2014   Argentina - Race Report Weather conditions sunny 24°C Air temp 21°C Track temp 60% Humidity Marquez continues flawless start to 2014 leading home second successive Repsol Honda 1-2 2013 World Champion Marc Marquez has enjoyed another fantastic race weekend taking victory from pole position. He has become the first rider since Valentino Rossi in 2001 to win the opening three premier class races of the season, and all from pole – a feat not matched since Giacomo Agostini back in 1971 Teammate Dani Pedrosa capped the amazing weekend for the Repsol Honda team with his second place finish at the Red Bull Argentina GP, and has now finished on the podium at the last seven MotoGP races – his longest sequence of successive podium finishes since 2012. He now moves ahead of Alex Barros, into third place, on the top ten list of all-time point scorers in the premier class. (1st Rossi – 3884, 2nd Doohan – 2298, 3rd Pedrosa – 2092, 4th Barros – 2079). It was a difficult start for Marc and Dani, who were 1st and 2nd on the grid respectively, slipping to 2nd and 5th by turn one. The early stages of the 25 lap race were filled with drama as riders passed and ran wide and Marc dropped back to 6th with Dani 7th by lap three. As the race began to find its rhythm, so did Marc and Dani, and they started to move through the traffic. By lap five Marc was up to 2nd behind Lorenzo but Dani was still amongst the pack. However, he overtook four riders and by lap nine was up to 3rd behind Lorenzo and Marc. Marc was content to sit behind Lorenzo for thirteen laps but finally made a move on lap seventeen passing him comfortably and opening up a two second gap in just three laps. Dani then began to close the gap on Lorenzo. He set the fastest lap of the race (1’39.233) on lap twenty two and then on the penultimate lap he passed Lorenzo to claim second place for the Repsol Honda Team. Marc has extended his lead in the Rider Championship to 75 points, with Dani on 56. Honda lead the Constructors Championship by 28 points and also the Team Championship by 68. The team must now pack up and fly directly to Andalucia, Spain for the GP of Jerez next week. Team Quotes 1st - Championship Standing: 1st - 75 points “I am happy with how the weekend went in general and I’d like to thank all my team! I think it was a nice race for the fans, with plenty of passes and I wasn't expecting it to be like that. As the race went on and I saw what the gap was to Jorge Lorenzo and I tried to catch up with him quickly and spend a few laps on his tail. When I saw that Dani was getting closer, I tried to overtake in order to maintain more of a gap. I took 25 more points today which are very important and I've put together three wins in a row, but we are aware that the season is very long and we are now heading to Jerez where Dani and Jorge are very fast. We will need to be up there with them, fighting for the win!” 2nd - Championship Standing: 2nd - 56 points "I enjoyed the race but after losing some time at the start it affected me and I found myself alone again. In the final part of the race I had a good pace and was able to recover places, but it didn't count for much. I took second place, but with the pace that we had we could have pushed for the win. You always have to learn and maybe I saved my tyres too much when I was riding as part of the group. Fortunately we found a good setup that allowed us to be more competitive, and this is positive” race results   Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina - Round 3 Pos. Rider Num. Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap 1 Marc Marquez 93 ESP 25 Repsol Honda Team HONDA 41'39.821 2 Dani Pedrosa 26 ESP 20 Repsol Honda Team HONDA +1.837 3 Jorge Lorenzo 99 ESP 16 Yamaha Factory Racing YAMAHA +3.201 4 Valentino Rossi 46 ITA 13 Yamaha Factory YAMAHA +4.898 5 Stefan Bradl 6 GER 11 LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA +15.029 6 Andrea Iannone 29 ITA 10 Pramac Racing DUCATI +19.447 7 Bradley Smith 38 GBR 9 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA +24.192 8 Pol Espargaro 44 ESP 8 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA +29.118 9 Andrea Dovizioso 4 ITA 7 Ducati Team DUCATI +33.673 10 Hiroshi Aoyama 7 JPN 6 Drive M7 Aspar HONDA +43.279 11 Nicky Hayden 69 USA 5 Drive M7 Aspar HONDA +43.352 12 Yonny Hernandez 68 COL 4 Pramac Racing DUCATI +44.819 13 Karel Abraham 17 CZE 3 Cardion AB Motoracing HONDA +45.178 14 Scott Redding 45 GBR 2 Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA +48.656 15 Aleix Espargaro 41 ESP 1 NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA +52.250 16 Hector Barbera 8 ESP   Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI +53.505 17 Michele Pirro 51 ITA   Ducati Team DUCATI +53.669 18 Michael Laverty 70 GBR   Paul Bird Motorsport ART & PBM +56.570 19 Mike Di Meglio 63 FRA   Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'03.140 20 Colin Edwards 5 USA   NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'05.760 21 Broc Parkes 23 AUS   Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 1'16.722 22 Alvaro Bautista 19 ESP   Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA DNF 23 Danilo Petrucci 9 ITA   IodaRacing Project IODA-SUTER DNF Rider standings Sunday, April 27th 2014 Pos. Rider Num. Nation Points Team Constructor 1 Marc Marquez 93 ESP 75 Repsol Honda Team HONDA 2 Dani Pedrosa 26 ESP 56 Repsol Honda Team HONDA 3 Valentino Rossi 46 ITA 41 Yamaha Factory YAMAHA 4 Andrea Dovizioso 4 ITA 34 Ducati Team DUCATI 5 Andrea Iannone 29 ITA 25 Pramac Racing DUCATI 6 Stefan Bradl 6 GER 24 LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 7 Jorge Lorenzo 99 ESP 22 Yamaha Factory Racing YAMAHA 8 Aleix Espargaro 41 ESP 21 NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 9 Bradley Smith 38 GBR 20 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 10 Nicky Hayden 69 USA 18 Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 11 Pol Espargaro 44 ESP 18 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 12 Hiroshi Aoyama 7 JPN 15 Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 13 Yonny Hernandez 68 COL 11 Pramac Racing DUCATI 14 Scott Redding 45 GBR 11 Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 15 Cal Crutchlow 35 GBR 10 Ducati Team DUCATI 16 Karel Abraham 17 CZE 8 Cardion AB Motoracing HONDA 17 Colin Edwards 5 USA 7 NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 18 Danilo Petrucci 9 ITA 2 IodaRacing Project IODA-SUTER 19 Hector Barbera 8 ESP 1 Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 20 Broc Parkes 23 AUS 1 Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 21 Michael Laverty 70 GBR 0 Paul Bird Motorsport ART & PBM 22 Alvaro Bautista 19 ESP 0 Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 23 Michele Pirro 51 ITA 0 Ducati Team DUCATI 24 Mike Di Meglio 63 FRA 0 Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI Copyright Free Images                                               Circuit Information View circuit page at www.repsolhondateam.com Length 4.806 m / 2.986 miles Width 16m Left corners 5 Right corners 9 Longest straight 1.076 m / 0.669 miles Constructed 2008 Modified 2012     Termas de Río Hondo, Santiago del Estero, Argentina   http://autodromotermas.com   Pole Position 1m 37.683s (177.1km/h) Marc Marquez (Honda, 2014) Race Lap 1m 39.233s (174.3 km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2014) Race Time 41m 39.821s (173 km/h) Marc Marquez (Honda, 2014) 2014 Race Winner Marc Marquez (Honda)   Honda Racing Corporation 3-15-1, Senzui, Asaka-shi, Saitama-Pref., 351-0024 Japan