Marc Marquez has called his fifth successive Texas victory as ‘crucial’ following his Argentina DNF, as it puts him firmly back in the hunt for the world championship.
Marquez has been the king of the Circuit of the Americas since 2013, but came into his stomping ground on the back foot after crashing out of the Argentine Grand Prix whilst comfortably leading the way.
Launching from pole position, Marquez slotted into second behind team-mate Dani Pedrosa and was held at bay for the opening laps. Behind, Maverick Vinales crashed out, handing the Honda rider a golden opportunity to reignite his title hopes.
“This was a crucial race, because after Argentina it was important to come back in the best way,” said Marquez.
“So we are really happy with this result. Although I won, it was difficult, because the temperature was much higher than yesterday.”
Saturday’s cooler running stopped Marquez from doing many laps on his preferred hard front tyre, but he knew running the medium would see him run into the same wear issues which halted his podium charge in Qatar.
A late switch proved to be masterful, and once clear of Pedrosa with 10 laps to go he pulled the pin, quickly opening up an advantage of over four seconds to assure him his first win since Japan last year.
“Five minutes before the start, I said to my chief mechanic, ‘Okay, let’s use the hard tyre’ because I knew that I would push the medium front a lot.
“In the beginning I was just trying to understand the limit, because I hadn’t tried it a lot on Friday. I was behind Dani and when I saw that he was struggling a little bit, and Valentino (Rossi) was challenging, I said, ‘time attack.
“I was able to win, and I’m happy to be back in the championship.”
Vinales’ non-finish and Marquez’s 11th straight US success allowed him to leap up to third in the championship standings, 18 points adrift of new leader Rossi heading into next month’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Team-mate Pedrosa enjoyed his best race for some time, the Spaniard using improvements made to his RC213V throughout practice to lead a grand prix for the first time since Misano 2016.
As the grip in his medium front tyre fell away towards the end of the 21-lap contest, Pedrosa opted to avoid a repeat of his Argentina woes and coast his Honda across the line for a well-earned third place. This result puts him up to sixth in the standings on 27 points.
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