Round 10: Indianapolis MotoGP™ victory makes it ten out of ten for Marquez in 2014

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez made it ten wins from ten starts in the 2014 MotoGP™ season as the reigning world champion stormed to victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Starting from pole position, Marquez had a poor start off the line and as the field completed the first lap he found himself in fourth place before he began his fight-back. Following an exciting battle for the lead, Marquez made the race-winning pass on the eleventh lap and was able to increase his pace to ultimately take the chequered flag by 1.803 seconds ahead of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo who finished in second place. Third place went to Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi who led the first ten laps of the race after a brilliant start.

Conditions were dry today, with ambient and track temperatures reaching their highest level of the race weekend, with a peak track temperature of 48°C recorded at the start of the race. The higher track temperatures didn’t have an effect on race tyre choice, with riders selecting the same tyre combinations they used in yesterday’s practice sessions. All except two riders selected the medium compound front slick, with Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa andOcto IodaRacing Team’s Danilo Petrucci opting instead for the hard compound front slick. Rear tyre choice saw almost every rider select their harder rear slick option; hard compound for the Factory Honda and Yamaha, and medium compound for the Ducati and open-class riders, with only GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista breaking the trend by selecting his softer, medium compound rear slick for the race. Tyre performance at this year’s Indianapolis Grand Prix which featured a revised track layout and new tarmac was exemplary, with ten of the fifteen riders that finished the race setting their fastest lap in the second half of the race.

Marquez’s perfect win record means he has amassed 250 championship points to lead teammate Dani Pedrosa by 89 points, while Rossi remains four points behind Pedrosa and in third place in the standings. 

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department

“The new layout at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a welcome change and resulted in some great racing today, but once again Marc was too strong so congratulations to him and Repsol Honda on another emphatic victory. The early stages of the race were particularly exciting with many riders on different makes of machine challenging for the race lead, and this bodes well for the rest of the season. I am pleased with how our tyres performed at the revised Indianapolis circuit with excellent levels of safety, performance and durability, and I am now looking forward to next week’s Czech Grand Prix as in the past few years we have had some very close races there.”

Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department

“Although track temperatures were warmer today there were no surprises with the riders’ race tyre choice, with every rider selecting the tyre combination that they preferred during the practice sessions. The medium compound front slick was the popular choice all weekend and this was chosen by almost every rider today, while the harder rear slick options were used by all except one rider for the race. The majority of the riders managed to set their best lap times in the closing stages and tyre performance was very consistent throughout the twenty-seven laps, so I am happy that our tyre allocation proved to be ideally suited to the new Indianapolis MotoGP circuit.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda – Race Winner

“The race was so hard especially as the track temperature was higher than yesterday so I struggled a bit in the beginning and so I stayed behind Valentino until I felt comfortable with the tyres. When I felt the front tyre was working well I could improve my pace and take the lead and although it was difficult to build a gap, in the end I could take the twenty-five points.”