MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P66
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
T
here was another great Mo-
toGP race at Termas de Rio
Hondo. Tense and closely
fought right up to the final stages,
with a crucial and thrilling over-
take by the darling of the crowd,
Valentino Rossi, toward the end of
the last lap.
Unfortunately for the great man's
hopes of another victory to his
name, it was for second place—still
the Monster Yamaha man's first
podium since Germany last year,
achieved exactly 23 years to the
day since his GP debut.
But by then, in fact, from the
very first corner, pole starter Marc
Marquez and his orange Repsol
Honda had long gone. In what the
defending champion described
as "a perfect weekend," without
even a single trademark lowside
crash and marred only by a chain
jumping off the sprocket in FP4,
he took the championship lead in
utterly dominant style.
Marquez was even able to slack
off at the end and still win by 9.8
seconds, his largest-ever dry-
weather margin, making nonsense
of the claims of the closest-ever
season.
"I decided that if I wasn't leading
at the first corner [because of the
Ducati holeshot launch system],
I would wait and save the tires,"
he said. "But I was leading, and
I knew my strong point was the
ROUND 2 / MARCH 29-31, 2019
TERMAS DE RIO HONDO CIRCUIT / TERMAS DE RIO HONDO, ARGENTINA
