MotoGP: Marquez wins third straight race

Marc Marquez claimed his third straight MotoGP victory and the fourth of his remarkable rookie season in the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

The polesitting Honda rider dropped to third at the start as Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa got off the line much better.

The title-contending trio then ran in very close company for the first half of the race.

Marquez eventually got ahead of his Honda team-mate with a clever move on the infield, but Lorenzo's Yamaha clung on at the front until half-distance, when Marquez slipped through into Turn 2.

Contrary to expectations, Marquez did not immediately disappear when in the lead, but going into the closing stages he was able to stretch his legs, winning by three and a half seconds.

Pedrosa made it a Honda one-two when he drafted past the fading Lorenzo with two laps left.

Valentino Rossi made a muted start to the race and took his time to work forward from 10th.

But by the end of the race he had caught the battling Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista. Some incredible and forceful racing resulted before Rossi grabbed fourth on the line by just 0.060s from Crutchlow.

Behind the lonely Stefan Bradl, the Ducatis' race-long battle got even more wild.

Contact between Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso at the final corner sent both bouncing over the kerbs and allowed Bradley Smith - who had jumped to fourth at the start - to pip them both.

Aleix Espargaro recovered from his qualifying crash to beat Colin Edwards to CRT honours.

Results - 27 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 44m52.463s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    +3.495s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                   +5.704s
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  +19.895s
 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha           +19.955s
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           +20.061s
 7.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               +24.842s
 8.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           +40.690s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  +40.701s
10.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  +40.823s
11.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           +59.868s
12.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         +1m06.650s
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  +1m09.462s
14.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  +1m15.207s
15.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m20.159s
16.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m25.879s
17.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        +1m29.616s
18.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           +1m36.388s
19.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda         +1 lap

Retirements:

     Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia              17 laps
     Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW           14 laps
     Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             5 laps
     Blake Young       Attack APR-Kawasaki       0 laps