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3 Straight For Marquez At Red Bull Indianapolis GP

INDIANAPOLIS, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015 – Two-time defending MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez passed Jorge Lorenzo in the closing laps to notch his third consecutive title at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Marquez, who has never lost a MotoGP race on American soil, has won at IMS in five straight years. He won Moto2 races in 2011 and 2012 prior to this three-year run in MotoGP. Marquez and Formula One legend Michael Schumacher are the only competitors to win at least three consecutive major series races at the Racing Capital of the World. Schumacher won four consecutive U.S. Grand Prix titles at IMS from 2003-06.

Although Marquez started the race from the pole position, Lorenzo, who started third on the grid, grabbed the lead going into the first turn and stayed there for much of the race. Marquez stayed close to Lorenzo, however, and finally passed him on Lap 24 in the No. 93 Repsol Honda, then held on to win by 0.688 of a second. Marquez’s triumph marked the 700th MotoGP race win for Honda.

“In the beginning I was able to follow him (Lorenzo) well, but then mid-race I was struggling a little bit,” Marquez said. “I was a half second, six-tenths behind him. But then, at the end, I saw that the only chance to try to attack was to try to surprise him. In the end, we must be happy because we won the race.”

Runner-up Lorenzo, the 2009 winner at Indianapolis, started the day in second place in the championship standings. He leaves Indianapolis with a net gain of four points and now trails his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who sits atop the season standings by a mere nine points after finishing third on Sunday.

Lorenzo now has three runner-up finishes at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP, including placing second to Marquez last year, and has finished no worse than fourth in eight starts at Indianapolis. Lorenzo led 24 laps on Sunday — the most by a rider in a single Red Bull Indianapolis GP — and has led more laps than anyone in MotoGP competition at IMS with 56.

Rossi survived a dramatic seesaw battle with Dani Pedrosa to finish third after qualifying eighth. A seven-time MotoGP champion and winner of the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP in 2008, Rossi has finished on the podium in all 10 MotoGP races this season.

“This is so important because it was a difficult weekend where Jorge and also Marc are always stronger than me, so (third) is not so bad,” Rossi said.

Local fan favorite and 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden of Owensboro, Kentucky, finished 16th on his No. 69 Aspar Honda.

A total of five different riders led the Moto2 race before 19-year-old Alex Rins of Spain grabbed the lead for good in the penultimate lap in capturing his first Moto2 win in his rookie season. Johann Zarco of France finished second and Franco Morbidelli of Italy was third.

In Moto3, the choice of tires played a huge role in a race that produced three first-time podium finishers.

A damp track and the threat of rain convinced many top riders and teams to begin on rain tires, but when the rain held off shortly after the start of the race, many riders headed to the pits for a change to racing slicks.

Guessing correctly on the tires gave Livio Loi of Belgium the win with an enormous margin of 38.860 seconds despite starting 26th on his RW Racing Honda. It was Loi’s first victory in 34 Moto3 starts. His previous best finish was a fourth last year in Argentina.

John McPhee, a 21-year-old from Britain, finished second on his Saxoprint RTG Honda after starting 18th. Philipp Oettl of Germany started 34th and last on the grid prior to finishing third on his Schedl GP Honda. Points leader Danny Kent finished 21st after qualifying first.

In MotoAmerica Superbike, Cameron Beaubier made it a weekend sweep by winning on Saturday and again on Sunday on his No. 6 Yamaha.

Roger Hayden, the younger brother of MotoGP star Nicky Hayden, was the runner-up for the second consecutive day, this time falling short to Beaubier by only .015 of a second at the famed IMS Yard of Bricks when the race was red flagged near the end for rain.

Also winning for the second consecutive day was Jake Gagne on his No. 32 Yamaha in the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 class. Gagne, the 2014 AMA Pro Daytona Superbike champion, has 11 wins this season.

 

 

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