Maverick Viñales continued his great start to 2017 by winning the Argentina GP, the Spaniard becoming the first Yamaha rider since Wayne Rainey in 1990 to win the opening two races of a season.
Vinales was able to walk to the victory after rival Marc Marquez crashed out early on, something that will aid Maverick’s title charge.
The race was filled with incidents, and it started on the first corner. Jorge Lorenzo’s dismal start to life at Ducati continued after hitting the rear of Andrea Iannone. The Spaniard was sent into the gravel and was unable to remount.
Marquez then gapped the rest of the field. The Repsol Honda rider continued his blistering pace set throughout the weekend and looked set to take his first win of the season.
However, disaster struck as Marquez crashed out at turn three after looking all so comfortable. The triple world champion was unable to get back on his bike, and so leaves Argentina with no points.
It was then plain sailing for Vinales, who barely had anyone to worry about behind him. Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi battled it out for second and third place, with the Italian, in his 350th grand prix, beating Crutchlow to second.
Behind them, it was a battle between Dani Pedrosa and Danilo Petrucci. This was until Pedrosa crashed out exactly where Marquez had previously. This left the door open for Alvaro Bautista to eventually finish fourth, with the Tech 3 pairing of Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger finishing fifth and sixth respectively. Petrucci ended up seventh.
Scott Redding was eighth, whilst Jack Miller and Karel Abraham were ninth and tenth. There were a number of fallers at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. Andrea Dovizioso and Aleix Espargaro crashed at turn five, with Espargaro taking out the Italian. Sam Lowes retired, whilst the injured Alex Rins fell at turn 13.
Vinales now extends his championship lead to 14 points. and will be looking to add to it in two weeks time at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
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