© Bruce Allen. Exclusive to Motorcycle.com
Marquez, Rossi Accept Gift from Vinales
The run-up to the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas set the stage for a much-anticipated cage match between Yamaha phenom Maverick Vinales and Honda triple world champion Marc Marquez. All day long, the British announcing crew was breathlessly prancing about the broadcast booth, pondering the sheer wonder of it all, going absolutely hyperbolic. Showing no sense of the moment, Vinales crashed out of fourth place on Lap 2, letting the air out of the balloon and ceding, at least for the moment, the lead in the world championship to teammate Valentino Rossi, with Marquez suddenly back in the game.
Practice, Practice, Practice
FP1: Vinales was in charge, not having received the memo about Marquez’ ownership position at COTA. FP2 was led by Marquez, snatched from Zarco; Vinales right behind, trimming his cuticles. FP3 was Vinales, Pedrosa, Crutchlow and Marquez.
Something had to be done about the weirdness in the standings. Early in the season, MotoGP seemed to have fallen through the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. Yamaha is just taking it to Honda—the 2016 M1 is competitive with the 2017 RC213V. All four Yamahas sit in the top 11 for the season, including the two rookies. Cal Crutchlow, the highest-ranked Honda, sits tied with rookie Jonas Folger. Co-rookie Johann Zarco is on the move, a mere five points behind Folger and Crutchlow. Three Ducs rest in the top ten led by, of all people, Scott Redding in fourth.
It was time to come up from the rabbit hole. Time to return to Europe. Just one more foreign outing in Texas to endure before things could return back to normal.
Establishing Positions
Q2 saw a few things put right, beyond the fact that Vinales and Marquez stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field, a bunch of Aliens and wannabees slugging it out for supporting spots in the top ten. Vinales delivered the first sub-2:04 lap of the day with maybe 30 seconds left in the session. 20 seconds later, Marquez flogged his Honda to a fifth straight pole in Texas, from which he had won the previous four races. Rossi snuck onto the front row late in the session, creating a second row of Dani Pedrosa, the impudent Zarco on the satellite Yamaha, and one Jorge Lorenzo, clad in white and red. Oh, and perhaps the save of the season, by Loris Baz late in the session.
Lorenzo and Jack Miller had made it through Q1, with Lorenzo putting the Ducati as high as fourth position before settling for sixth. Zarco had been up near the top of the timesheets again all weekend, putting pressure on a lot of factory rides. Miller crashed out of Q2 and appeared to be trotting back to the garage “gingerly,” his inevitable early-season injury having possibly arrived. Dani Pedrosa was hanging around in fourth, back to starting up front with the big dogs.
In support of my blog, Rossi and Vinales had their first set-to on Saturday during qualifying, with Vinales seemingly cheesed off about Rossi cruising on the racing line. Race Direction was later said to be considering sending a strongly-worded letter to Lin Jarvis asking him for “best efforts to prevail” upon The Franchise not to seriously injure The New Kid in Town.
The Race Itself
The 2017 American Grand Prix was more parade than firefight. The factory Hondas and Yamahas emerged from the early chaos to form up the leading group, with Dani Pedrosa front and center. Cal Crutchlow got clear of The Great Unwashed, and there was even a Jorge Lorenzo sighting around fifth place on the first lap. The usual suspects quickly found themselves strung out along the bumps and potholes littering the Circuit of the Americas, which stands in need of a paving crew.
Although it took 21 laps and 45 minutes to confirm it, the race basically came down to four moves. 1) Vinales crashed late on Lap 2, leaving Pedrosa, Marquez, Rossi and Johann Zarco in the lead group. 2) Marquez took the lead from Pedrosa on Lap 9. 3) Rossi and Zarco came together a few minutes later, the Frenchman pushing Rossi wide to the right where he could cut back and increase his lead, incurring a hypothetical .3 second penalty that amounted to nothing but had the announcers, fully recovered from Vinales’ crash, happy to find something new to go mental over. 4) Rossi went through on Pedrosa on Lap 19.
Game. Set. Match
At Ducati Corse, Life Goes On
Andrea Dovizioso being interviewed elsewhere about his place in the Ducatisphere:
Q: So why can’t the problems (with the GP17) be solved?
A: “There’s a big difference between understanding the problems and solving them.”
Quoted elsewhere, it seems Andrea “The Maniac” Iannone has finally accepted as fact something the rest of the planet observed late last season. This, allegedly, is News You Need: ‘Andrea Iannone says he is resigned to having to race with a top speed deficit with Suzuki throughout the 2017 MotoGP season.’ Please refer to the above quote from Dovi with regard to this revelation.
Rubbing salt in the wound, I’m pretty sure that Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Iannone stole Jorge Lorenzo’s lunch money over the last few laps of the race. We could be charitable and suppose JLo’s tires gave up on him. Or we could be hateful and small and speculate that he got out-cojoñed by the two Italians.
The Big Picture
With Vinales’ feet replanted in terra firma after an otherworldly start to his Yamaha career, we can now have a straightforward, adult conversation about the state of the MotoGP championship after three rounds. The factory Yamahas and Hondas appear significantly ahead of everyone else early in the season. Rossi and Vinales are frightening, Vinales for his sheer speed, Rossi for his strategic brilliance.
Marquez has atoned for his crash in Argentina and will push The Boys in Blue for the entire season. The factory Ducati program is in deep yogurt, Dovizioso hanging onto fourth place by his fingernails while grasping bad luck with both hands. LCR Honda stud Cal Crutchlow continues to nose around the top of the standings, his crash at Losail all that stands between him and a top three ranking.
So, order has been restored at the top of the MotoGP food chain just in time to return to racing in Europe. Aliens occupy the top three spots in the standings. Near-Aliens (semi-Aliens?) sit fourth and fifth, while the Alien Emeritus stands sixth. The apparently brilliant Johann Zarco has seventh place all to himself, while teammate Jonas Folger is tied for eighth place with Pramac Ducati pilot Scot Redding and Jack Miller. My boy Alex Rins, previously nursing a bad ankle, suffered a compound fracture of his wrist during practice this weekend and is out until further notice.
And Jorge Lorenzo, who sold his Alien Card for filthy lucre, sits counting his money in 13th place, with 12 points to show for his first three acts with Ducati.
A Look Ahead
Two weeks from now MotoGP blasts into the Spanish Riviera. The racing will be at Jerez, while the action in the evening will be on The Strip in Cadiz. Maverick Vinales, despite the good vibes associated with a return to home soil, probably will not be in the gift-giving mood in which he found himself today.
Excuse me while I butcher the old Smith Barney one-liner. If they want spots on the podium next time out, Rossi and Marquez will probably have to do it the old-fashioned way.
They’ll have to earn it.
Tags: Aprilia, Cal Crutchlow, Dani Pedrosa, Ducati, Honda, Jorge Lorenzo, KTM, Marc Marquez, maverick vinales, suzuki, valentino rossi, Yamaha
Late-Braking MotoGP 
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