by S. Ancin / photo: motogp.com

Champion Marc Marquez reigned again in his amulet circuit, the Americas (Austin, Texas), where he has climbed to the top of the podium for five years straight. Rossi finished second (taking the place as the new title leader) and Pedrosa third.

The third day of MotoGP confirmed that the title is still very much up for grabs. Viñales took a risk and crashed on the second lap; Marquez won showing off his most aggressive facet yet, he was cautions and got it right. Rossi, who at  39 years old is still a strong candidate to the crown,  got his third podium.

The weekend was intense. Friday started with 29º and a 53% humidity, Saturday however was 16º with 82% humidity which had an impact on the bikes’ grip. The weather conditions and bad health of the tarmac at the US circuit affected the final grid. In the first free training, 10 riders hit the floor (twice in the case of Márquez). The worst hit was the Spaniard Álex Rins, who fractured his radius and ulna and can expect 6 or 7 weeks on the bench (if he has a smooth recovery).

Pedrosa’s start

Pedrosa performed a great start and positioned himself in first place from the second line of the grid, followed by Marquez, Rossi, Viñales and Lorenzo who was overtaken by Zarco during the first lap. The long expected duel Marquez – Viñales went up in smoke when “Mack” kissed the tarmac. It was an unexpected fall and his first mistake with Yamaha putting a stain on his great beginnings within this scuderia.

On the 13th lap, the current champion, and only one of the favourite racers who opted for two hard wheels, overtook Pedrosa at only 7 laps from the finish line and fleeing after the fast lap opened an insurmountable distance. Behind, Zarco was trying to overtake Rossi and at one of these attempts  the Italian went over the asphalt run-off area

and was penalised with three seconds on top of his final time. With two laps left to the end, Rossi overtook Pedrosa by over three tenths of a second. Il Dotore didn’t disappoint. There are not many pilots able to read the races like him and who do better on the one to one.

The greatest comeback of all was that of Crutchlow who steadily rose from the third line to end up fighting for the fourth place against Zarco who faltered at the end. Although Lorenzo rose steadily in his race, he hasn’t quite managed to solve the problems with his Ducati and he finished ninth.