Marc Márquez wins the MotoGP race in Australia and extends his lead

The MotoGP World Championship has held its second round of the 2017 season’s Asian tour at Phillip Island Circuit in Australia, where we have seen plenty of action on the Australian track, so expectation and a lot of intensity.

The start was very good for Jack Miller, who led at the first corner, followed by Márquez, the home rider undoubtedly has that extra edge of being on the Australian track, in front of his public and his people, and all this despite his physical condition. Miller managed to put 0.8s between himself and Márquez in just one lap.

With 26 laps to go we saw a key moment for Márquez, as the Italian (Andrea Dovizioso) got caught up, managed to avoid the crash, but lost many positions. Marc did not have it easy either, as Viñales pushed a little harder and managed to overtake him cleanly, but suddenly he went into the 93, Zarco, who got through very narrowly, but very very narrowly, almost taking Marc out, causing both to lose positions, and Rossi will move into third place.

Miller pushed hard and had to back off a little, which caused Rossi to go all out to overtake the Australian, followed by Viñales and then Márquez; all three managed to pass Miller with 22 laps to go, and the Australian could no longer hold the lead. Afterwards we saw several battles at the front with Rossi-Viñales-Márquez-Zarco-Miller, while we watched Aleix Espargaró crash. A lot of fighting among the leading riders, and without doubt they gave us some very intense laps in these early positions.

With 14 laps to go we saw Rossi in first place, managing to overtake Zarco, and pushing to try to break away from the race. But things did not stay that way; we kept seeing a lot of fighting between Rossi-Viñales-Zarco, while Marc lost positions and fell behind. It seemed Márquez was out of the battle for victory, but suddenly with 9 laps to go we saw Maverick move into 1st, followed by Rossi and a spectacular Márquez who put in a huge effort and returned to the front.

A brutal battle within the group; it was impossible to know who would win the race, we could not even blink to see every overtake at the front. But with 4 laps to go, with Marc in the lead, and seeing Zarco-Rossi engaged in an intense fight, he managed to break away from the race, especially by setting several 1.30.1 laps, which left him in front and opening a gap over his pursuers.

Finally, victory for Márquez, the sixth of the season for the rider from Honda, while in second place is Valentino Rossi, after holding off Zarco and Viñales, especially the Frenchman who gave him a lot of trouble. But the Frenchman saw at the end that Viñales had overtaken him and he finished off the podium, so it was very interesting right to the end. The top 10 was completed with Márquez 1st, Rossi 2nd, Viñales 3rd, Zarco 4th, Crutchlow 5th, Iannone 6th, Miller 7th, Rins 8th, Pol Espargaró 9th and 10th Smith.

For his part, Dovizioso finished 13th, after having a problem at the end of the race, and losing two places to Redding and Pedrosa, which means that with this result, Marc leads with a 33-point advantage over the Italian, giving him the first match ball in Malaysia.

A great race in the MotoGP class.

In the Moto3 class we had a great moment for Joan Mir; the young rider from Mallorca won on the Australian track and clinched the 2017 World Championship title, in a difficult race marked by rain with 7 laps to go, causing a red flag and Mir’s triumph. The top 10 was completed with Loi 2nd, Martín 3rd, Rodri 4th, Bastianini 5th, Fenati 6th, Sasaki 7th, Norrodin 8th, Suzuki 9th and 10th Dalla Porta. The rest of our riders finished Herrera 19th, Ramírez 21st, Guevara 23rd. Congratulations to Joan.

The Moto2 class was also very exciting, with the first victory of Miguel Oliveira in the intermediate class, and also for KTM; in a race where the Portuguese rider dominated almost from the start, followed by his teammate Binder and with Morbidelli present, increasing his lead in the championship over Luthi. The top 10 was completed with Raffin 4th, Vierge 5th, Marquez 6th, Corsi 7th, Aegerter 8th, Cortese 9th and 10th Luthi. The rest of our riders finished Axel 11th, Fernández 17th, Viñales 19th, Lecuona 20th.

Photo | MotoGP official website