Austin, 12 April 2015 (13Apr IST): Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has returned to winning form in the Red Bull GP of The Americas with teammate Hiroshi Aoyama – replacing Dani Pedrosa – fighting to the last lap to take 11th place.

Pole man Marc dropped back briefly from the start to 2nd place behind Dovizioso whilst Hiroshi got caught up and found himself 20th, from 16th on the grid. By lap five, Hiro had climbed to 13th and after a brief battle with Dovizioso, Marc took first place.

With Rossi and Iannone fighting with Dovizioso, Marc never looked back and led from the front for the remainder of the race – taking his 20th victory in the MotoGP class. Hiroshi progressed further and reached 11th place, which he briefly lost on the final lap, but showed a fighting spirit and re-passed Barbera taking 11th.

Marc has won on all six occasions that he has raced in the MotoGP class in the USA, and Honda celebrate their 11th consecutive win on American soil. The last non-Honda MotoGP winner in the USA was Jorge Lorenzo, at Laguna Seca in 2010.

Now the team packs up and head straight to Argentina for the third round of 2015.

Marc Marquez said: "I am very happy with this victory! After yesterday, things looked positive for us, but the only doubt was about the weather. In the end, it turned out stranger than it had seemed. When I saw that it was going to be a dry race, I started out very focused - because I knew it was important to try to win today. However, right from the first lap I saw that the track was not like it had been before the rain of last night. There was less grip and it was harder to ride comfortably. I decided to keep calm in the early laps to try to understand the situation well, and when I started to find a feeling similar to practice, I decided to push the pace a bit. That was when I was able to open up a gap."

Results Session

Pos.

Rider

Num

Nation

Points

Team

Time/Gap

1

MARQUEZ Marc

93

SPA

25

Repsol Honda Team

43'47.150

2

DOVIZIOSO Andrea

4

ITA

20

Ducati Team

+2.354

3

ROSSI Valentino

46

ITA

16

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

+3.120

4

LORENZO Jorge

99

SPA

13

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

+6.682

5

IANNONE Andrea

29

ITA

11

Ducati Team

+7.584

6

SMITH Bradley

38

GBR

10

Monster Yamaha Tech 3

+10.557

7

CRUTCHLOW Cal

35

GBR

9

CWM LCR Honda

+16.967

8

ESPARGARO Aleix

41

SPA

8

Team Suzuki Ecstar

+19.025

9

VINALES Maverick

25

SPA

7

Team Suzuki Ecstar

+38.570

10

PETRUCCI Danilo

9

ITA

6

Pramac Racing

+41.796

11

AOYAMA Hiroshi

7

JPN

5

Repsol Honda Team

+47.199

12

BARBERA Hector

8

SPA

4

Avintia Racing

+47.339

13

HAYDEN Nicky

69

USA

3

Aspar MotoGP Team

+56.484

14

MILLER Jack

43

AUS

2

CWM LCR Honda

+56.731

15

BAUTISTA Alvaro

19

SPA

1

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

+57.372

16

LAVERTY Eugene

50

IRE

0

Aspar MotoGP Team

+58.898

17

BAZ Loris

76

FRA

0

Athina Forward Racing

+1'08.787

18

DE ANGELIS Alex

15

RSM

0

Athina Forward Racing

+1'22.236

19

ABRAHAM Karel

17

CZE

0

AB Motoracing

DNF

20

MELANDRI Marco

33

ITA

0

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

DNF

21

HERNANDEZ Yonny

68

COL

0

Pramac Racing

DNF

22

DI MEGLIO Mike

63

FRA

0

Avintia Racing

DNF

23

REDDING Scott

45

GBR

0

Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS

DNF

24

BRADL Stefan

6

GER

0

Athina Forward Racing

DNF

25

ESPARGARO Pol

44

SPA

0

Monster Yamaha Tech 3

DNF

eom/Honda press release

[caption id="attachment_3925" align="alignright" width="300"] Reigning world champion Marquez returns to winning ways in Austin on Sunday. A Repsol Honda image[/caption]