2019 Argentina MotoGP: Márquez storms to victory

    Reigning champion Marc Márquez wins by a wide margin; Valentino Rossi finishes 2nd, ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

    Published On Apr 01, 2019 03:41:00 PM

    5,558 Views

    In 2018, the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo track in Argentina played host to a scintillating battle between Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez. The Spaniard had to fight his way back to the front of the grid owing to a ride-through penalty; and an incident with Rossi led to another 30sec penalty that resulted in an 18th place finish for Márquez. This year, however, was a completely different story for both riders, with Márquez dominating the 2019 Argentina GP. Márquez finished over 9.8sec ahead of Rossi, who secured 2nd place after a tussle with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

    Starting on pole, Márquez made a near-perfect start and immediately built a lead. In latter stages of the race, this advantage stretched to over 12sec. His factory Honda teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, on the other hand, fell back to as far as 19th place before regaining places to finish in 17th place – the same position he started in.

    With Márquez well ahead of the rest of the pack throughout the race, the battle for 2nd place saw the most action. Fresh from his Qatar GP win, Dovizioso spent most of the time fighting Rossi for 2nd place and had as many as five other riders chasing after them. One of them was Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who started in 16th place and put in a strong performance to finish 5th. His teammate Joan Mir had to retire from the race with just four laps to go.

    Rossi's teammate Maverick Vinales looked set to take 7th place before being taken out by the Petronas SRT Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli on the last lap at Turn 7. With the incident taking both riders out of contention, factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci was promoted to 6th place.

    Cal Crutchlow stood a chance to be part of the podium fight but was handed a ride-through penalty after jumping the start, and he could only recover to finish down in 13th. Johann Zarco finished 15th for the second race in a row while Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone was last to finish, at 17th. It was a day to forget for Avintia Ducati with both Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham crashing out.

    After Argentina, Márquez sits at the top of the championship with 45 points, 4 points ahead of Dovizioso. 3rd in the championship is Valentino Rossi, with 31 points. The next race is set to take place on April 14, at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas.

    Results

    POS

    RIDER

    TEAM

    LAPS

    GAP

    1

    Marc Márquez

    Honda

    25

    41m43.688s

    2

    Valentino Rossi

    Yamaha

    25

    +9.816s

    3

    Andrea Dovizioso

    Ducati

    25

    +10.530s

    4

    Jack Miller

    Pramac Ducati

    25

    +12.140s

    5

    Alex Rins

    Suzuki

    25

    +12.563s

    6

    Danilo Petrucci

    Ducati

    25

    +13.750s

    7

    Takaaki Nakagami

    LCR Honda

    25

    +18.160s

    8

    Fabio Quartararo

    Petronas Yamaha

    25

    +20.403s

    9

    Aleix Espargaro

    Aprilia

    25

    +25.292s

    10

    Pol Espargaro

    KTM

    25

    +25.679s

    11

    Miguel Oliveira

    Tech3 KTM

    25

    +25.855s

    12

    Jorge Lorenzo

    Honda

    25

    +27.497s

    13

    Cal Crutchlow

    LCR Honda

    25

    +31.398s

    14

    Francesco Bagnaia

    Pramac Ducati

    25

    +32.893s

    15

    Johann Zarco

    KTM

    25

    +33.372s

    16

    Hafizh Syahrin

    Tech3 KTM

    25

    +35.545s

    17

    Andrea Iannone

    Aprilia

    25

    +38.238s

    -

    Maverick Vinales

    Yamaha

    24

    Retirement

    -

    Franco Morbidelli

    Petronas Yamaha

    24

    Retirement

    -

    Joan Mir

    Suzuki

    21

    Retirement

    -

    Tito Rabat

    Avintia Ducati

    15

    Retirement

    -

    Karel Abraham

    Avintia Ducati

    14

    Retirement

     

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