2018 Argentina MotoGP Sunday Results

2018 Argentina MotoGP Sunday Results

At a crazy and chaotic Argentine Motorcycle Grand Prix Cal Crutchlow took victory on his LCR Honda in an absolutely riveting race that saw Crutchlow and Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco in a heated last-lap tussle, the Brit just managing to hold off the Frenchman by a scant 0.251-seconds at the line. Alex Rins, who led portions of the race on the factory Suzuki, took a close third, marking his first MotoGP podium.

Crutchlow will come into the American round in Austin leading the series championship for the first time. The last British rider to lead the premier class championship was Barry Sheene in 1979.

The other major story was the miserable race experienced by defending world champion Marc Marquez. He stalled his bike just as the race was to start and was told to go to pitlane. He didn’t and as a result was given a ride-though penalty while leading. He re-entered and began a torrid charge through the field, but his Honda was like a bowling ball through pins. First, he made hard contact with Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro and was also penalized for that. His third penalty came late in the race when he plowed into Valentino Rossi, causing Rossi to run off into the wet grass and crash. In the end the penalties meant that Marquez was pushed back to 18^th place.

After the race Marquez got off his bike, walked directly to Rossi’s garage in an apparent attempt to apologizes, but was rebuffed by members of Rossi’s team.

Confusion reigned before the start of the race. Under on and off light rain, pole winner Jack Miller chose slick tires and gridded for the start. The other riders pitted to change tires. Officials did not want a dangerous scrum of nearly the entire grid starting from pit lane, so the race was delayed and re-gridded resulting in a bizarre starting with Miller on pole, with the rest of the field starting about five rows back.

Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo had patches of damp and even wet areas, which improved as the race wore on.

Miller predictably led the first lap, but Marquez was closing quickly. Dani Pedrosa suffered a hard high-side at the end of the first lap after contact with Zarco.

Marquez took the lead on the second lap and was pulling away when a few laps later he was forced to do his ride-though penalty, putting Miller back up front.

The race sorted out with a four-rider breakaway of Miller, Rins, Zarco and Crutchlow.

In an intense second-half of the race, Rins put the Suzuki into the lead after several attempts at passing Miller that didn’t stick. But then Rins ran wide, dropping to fourth and putting Miller back on the point. Miller then promptly did the same, giving Crutchlow the lead for the first time with Miller’s error dropping him off the leaders making it a three-way battle to the flag.

Zarco then briefly held first until Crutchlow got it back with two laps to go. Zarco made his best effort at finding a way past on the final lap, but Crutchlow was flawless and held on for the victory, his third in MotoGP.

“It’s nice to win there’s no doubt about that, but it was expected to be honest,” said a confident sounding Crutchlow after the race. “I came into the weekend thinking I could be first or second with Marc and we ended up winning. I was comfortable in the battle and felt I took no risks. I stayed with riders that I probably should have and would have been able to drop if I needed to, but I didn’t want to take any risks. The front tire was too soft for me. We knew that from the start of the race, but it was drizzling. We have to be pleased. The team has done a fantastic job in the last two races and I think we could have fought for the win no matter which circuit it would have been this weekend.

“Now we go to Austin and we’re aiming for the top five. We have to aim for the top five to come out of there with strong points.”

Behind the podium finishers came Pramac Ducati’s Miller.  Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales rounded out the top five.

After two rounds Crutchlow leads the championship with 38 points. Dovizioso, who finished 11^th today, is second with 35 and Zarco third with 28.

The next round is in two weeks, on April 22 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

2018 Argentina MotoGP Sunday Results

GRAN PREMIO MOTUL DE LA REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA

MotoGP Race Classification 2018

Termas de Río Hondo, Sunday, April 08, 2018

1	25	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	170.4	40’36.342
2	20	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	170.4	+0.251
3	16	42	Alex RINS	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	170.2	+2.501
4	13	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	170.1	+4.390
5	11	25	Maverick VIÑALES	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	169.3	+14.941
6	10	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	168.8	+22.533
7	9	53	Tito RABAT	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	168.8	+23.026
8	8	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	168.7	+23.921
9	7	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	168.7	+24.311
10	6	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	168.6	+26.003
11	5	44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	168.2	+31.022
12	4	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	168.2	+31.891
13	3	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	168.1	+32.452
14	2	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	167.5	+42.061
15	1	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Ducati Team	Ducati	167.5	+42.274
16		19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	167.5	+42.625
17		12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	167.4	+43.350
18		93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	169.4	+43.860
19		46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	166.8	+52.082
20		17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	166.0	+1’03.944
21		10	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	165.6	+1’10.144
Not Classified
		38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	167.2	7 Laps
		41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	166.2	11 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
		26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda		0 Lap