Marquez wins his first 2019 race as Rossi and Dovizioso battle for podium
- Shahmir Khan
- Apr 1, 2019
- 2 min read
Marc Marquez retained his astonishing pace at Argentine Grand Prix to get his first victory by a huge lead while Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso fought for the second place, with Rossi making the move on final lap.
Marc Marquez had a holeshot from pole position to first corner, extending his lead from nearest rival Maverick Vinales as Vinales tumbled down the order to 8th, running wide at the entry to Turn 1.
Marquez increased the lead lap by lap, making it near impossible for his rival to come close to him, getting 1 second at every lap. With 15 laps to go, the 5-time champion was 7 seconds clear of the field, extending to more than 12 seconds before crossing finish line to have a lead of almost 10 seconds.
But few yards behind Marquez, the battle was on between Dovizioso and Rossi as both riders fought nip and tuck battle, as Rossi took 2nd place midway through the race but made a mistake with less than 10 laps to go run wide at Turn 5. But in the end, "The Doctor" retook second place from Dovizioso after a strong move to make it to podium for the first time since Catalunya in 2018.
Jack Miller finished fourth after overtaking Alex Rins in closing stages of the race, while Rins made an impressive recovery ride to finish 5th while starting from 16th on factory Suzuki.
Danilo Petrucci had a good race, finishing sixth after a disappointing season opener on the sister factory Ducati.
Vinales made a horrendous start on run down to Turn 1, dropping to fourth and ultimately eighth on lap 2.
He was set to take 7th place in the end but ran out of contention after his stablemate Franco Morbidelli collided with his teammate on final lap, resulting in a big crash between the two.
Takaaki Nakagami then took the 7th place on LCR Honda ahead of the satellite Yamaha bike of Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia and his brother Pol Espargaro on the factory KTM machine.
Miguel Oliveira had a good race, finishing ahead of Jorge Lorenzo, who had a slow start but took several positions to come home in 12th.
Cal Crutchlow had a very frustrating race, the Briton in strong place to get podium but made a jump start and received a ride-through penalty, finishing 13th.
Francesco Bagnaia ran 14th ahead of Johann Zarco, Hafizh Syahrin and Andrea Iannone to complete the list of riders classifying as both Reale Avintia Ducatis crashed while Joan Mir retired in the pits after running into the grass.
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