Michelin’s debut in Argentina at the Termas De Rio Honda circuit was somewhat dramatic, with Marc Marquez taking his first win of the season after easing ahead on lap 3.
An incident with Scott Redding’s rear tyre on the Saturday led to the withdrawl of both of Michelin’s nominated solutions, and with rain then falling during the warm-up riders had no opportunity to test their proposed alternative.
In the interests of safety, the race was then shortened from 25 to 20 laps, with a mandatory bike swap taking place between laps 9 and 11.
Marquez started the race from pole position but soon lost the race to Dovizioso on the Ducati. He then eased ahead on lap 3, and then went to take the win unchallenged for the rest of the race. This was his 25th victory in the premier class.
A last corner collision between Dovizioso and Iannone saw the Ducati pair hand second place to Valentino Rossi, with Dani Pedrosa taking the final podium spot.
Only 13 riders finished the race, making for an interesting top ten with Eugene Laverty taking a well deserved 4th, and Hector Barbera in 5th. Doviziosos did manage to make it across the finish line, but finished outside of the top 10.
With Lorenzo taking a tumble on lap 5, Marquez is now 8 points clear in the championship, with Rossi in second and Pedrosa in third another 6 points further back.
“I would first like to thank Dorna, IRTA and all the teams for their understanding and assistance in what has been a very challenging couple of days for us,” said Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of Michelin’s MotoGP Programme. “The decision we took with Race Control with the introduction last night of the extra tyre was the right one for rider safety and the change to the schedule to accommodate another practice session was also the best solution. Unfortunately the weather intervened and we had to make further alternative plans. As always the riders’ safety is our paramount concern and we wanted to do everything in our power to make sure that the race went ahead without any incidents. As it happened we were treated to a very exciting race.”
Michelin will now be travelling to Austin in Texas for the third round next weekend, and will be hoping to address any concerns raised by the teams and riders.
