Spain’s Marc Marquez had tyre management in mind as the Repsol Honda rider bided his time before making a decisive move nine laps from the finish to win the weekend’s Argentina MotoGP.

Marquez shadowed Movistar Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo until he felt the time was right to impose himself on the race and quickly pulled away to win his third successive Grand Prix from pole position, becoming the first rider since Giacomo Agostini in 1971 to achieve the feat in the opening three rounds of the championship.

The defending world champion said: “I enjoyed it a lot, especially at the beginning fighting with all the riders. We overtook I don’t know how many times but it was so nice! I enjoyed it, but it was quite a big risk and I saw that Jorge started to open up a gap.

“So I tried to catch him, then when I was behind him I followed for some laps. With nine laps I started to push a little bit more because I saw Dani was coming and then I just kept the distance. The key to this race was to manage the tyres well, especially the rear tyres.”

Marquez is now looking ahead to Jerez in Spain next weekend, where he admits victory on home soil is always much sweeter.

“A home circuit is always special. It will be nice to ride in front of our fans,” Marquez said. “I’m coming with three victories in a row but I know it will be difficult because it’s one of the favourite circuits of Dani [Pedrosa]; last year he had a very good race, and Jorge will be strong.

“We will try to do our job and fight for victory but if not the podium. After three victories, of course your confidence is so high and maybe you can think that it will be easier, but I know the season is very long.

“Of course if we can win we will try 100%, because we don’t know what can happen in the future,” he added.

“We know for example that Dani is very strong. Dani is only 19 points behind me and now we arrive at his favourite circuit [Jerez] so we will have to concentrate even more than here and try to push.

“We know that we will struggle more in some circuits but we will try to better at them than last year.”

Marquez heads the championship with a maximum 75 points from the first three rounds followed by Pedrosa (56) and Rossi (41).

 

Results, MotoGP, Argentina:

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 41m 39.821s

2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 41m 41.658s

3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41m 43.022s

4. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41m 44.719s

5. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 41m 54.850s

6. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 41m 59.268s

7. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 42m 4.013s

8. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 42m 8.939s

9. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 42m 13.494s

10. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 42m 23.100s

11. Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 42m 23.173s

12. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 42m 24.640s

13. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) 42m 24.999s

14. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R)* 42m 28.477s

15. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 42m 32.071s

16. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Avintia) 42m 33.326s

17. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 42m 33.490s

18. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 42m 36.391s

19. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Avintia)* 42m 42.961s

20. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 42m 45.581s

21. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART)* 42m 56.543s

Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) DNF

Danilo Petrucci ITA IodaRacing Project (ART) DNF.

 

MotoGP world championships standings after round three of 19:

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 75 points

2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 56 points (-19)

3. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41 points (-34)

4. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 34 points (-41)

5. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 25 points (-50)

6. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 24 points (-51)

7. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 22 points (-53)

8. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 21 points (-54)

9. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 20 points (-55)

10. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 18 points (-57)

11. Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 18 points (-57)

12. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 15 points (-60)

13. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R)* 11 points (-64)

14. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 11 points (-64)

15. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 10 points (-65)

16. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) 8 points (-67)

17. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 7 points (-68)

18. Danilo Petrucci ITA IodaRacing Project (ART) 2 points (-73)

19. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Avintia) 1 points (-74)

20. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART)* 1 points (-74)

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