Marc Marquez Wins Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas

Austin, TX – This past Sunday Marc Marquez won the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas at COTA for the fourth straight year. In a wild race that saw multiple crashes, Marc Marquez saw none of them. The 23 yr-old Spaniard, starting once again from the pole position, was well out in front of the pack.

Jorge Lorenzo, who briefly challenged Marquez off the starting line, ran wide exiting Turn 1. From then on Marquez maintained a lead that only increased as the 21-lap race went on. Marquez, aboard his Repsol Honda, was simply unstoppable. He won the 2016 Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas with a perfect record, winning every MotoGP race he has started in the US. Lorenzo, the 2015 MotoGP World Champion, finished in second place aboard his Movistar Yamaha. Andrea Iannone rode his Ducati Team bike to a third place finish.

TIRE MATTERS
The weather was good, overcast at the track with air temps running from the high 60’s to mid-80’s. Marquez, who appeared to have no tire problems throughout the race, chose to run a soft front tire and a medium rear, while all the factory Ducati and Yamaha riders opted for medium front and rear tires. Did this tire choice make the difference? Or is Marc Marquez just that good?

CRASH AFTER CRASH
The third lap of the race saw Valentino Rossi, aboard his number 46 Ducati, crash out of the race on turn 2, when he lost the front end midway through the turn. The seventh lap saw Dani Pedrosa lose control of his Honda in Turn 1 and crash into Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati. Pedrosa remained in the race, but Dovizioso was out. Then came lap 8 which had Cal Crutchlow aboard his Honda and Bradley Smith riding his Monster Yamaha Tech 3; both went down. Although both were able to rejoin the race they had lost valuable time. Next, Pedrosa pulled into the pits with ten laps remaining, his Honda too damaged to continue.

Meanwhile, Marquez was consistently turning laps at the 3.4 mile circuit in the 2:04s, pulling further ahead of the competition with each lap, and eventually winning The Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas by over six seconds.

Marquez now leads the 2016 MotoGP World Championship series with 66 points, having won in Argentina last week. The series returns to Europe in two weeks, with the Gran Premio Red Bull de España, scheduled for April 24. COTA is now the sole venue for MotoGP in the United States, so that’s it for MotoGP in the US for 2016.

WEEKEND ATTENDANCE SETS OVERALL RECORD

Circuit of the Americas claimed a 2016 MotoGP race day attendance number of 56,382, with an overall weekend attendance of 131,881. Those numbers, if correct, give this past weekend’s MotoGP race the second best attendance numbers on record for a MotoGP race day at COTA, and the best attendance record for a 3 day MotoGP weekend at COTA. The 2013 Inaugural Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas at the Circuit of the Americas drew over 61,000 fans on race day, with 131,082 fans in attendance over that 3-day weekend.