• Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) continues his MotoGP domination at the Circuit of the Americas for the fifth time in a row

• Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) race brilliantly to P2, putting him ahead of the championship title fight with 56 points

• Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) landed his first podium of the season after quite a few amazing battles with Marquez and Rossi throughout the race

It’s official; Marc Marquez makes it five out five victories at arguably one of his favourite tracks in the race calendar, the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Texas USA. After a brilliant qualifying session and race, it’s too early to put aside the 2016 MotoGP World Champion aside just yet for the title crown of 2017.

All weekend, signs were pointing to a major head to head battle between Marc Marquez and Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales. After a great start from Pedrosa, Marquez and Rossi, Vinales settled for fourth until he slid out of contention after only a couple of laps. It was his first DNF since Argentina 2016.

Viñales has gone down! It won't be the dream hat-trick for #MV25!#RiderOK #AmericasGP pic.twitter.com/KucjbdWjm3

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 23, 2017

“It was a really strange crash. I did exactly the same as in Warm Up and all weekend, but I crashed. I think we had some issues with the front tyre, but anyway, we know that we are strong and that we have the speed. We can be strong again, so I‘m going to try to forget this crash and come to Jerez even faster, stronger and more consistent than I was here.”

Valentino Rossi on the other hand scored his third podium in a row. After crossing the finish line in P2, Rossi now leads the MotoGP 2017 world championship with 56 points, six points ahead of Maverick Vinales and 18 points ahead of Marc Marquez.

It was noted that the FIM race direction penalised The Doctor with a 0.3 second penalty for the unfair advantage gained when he was trying to avoid a collision with Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider and 2017 MotoGP rookie, Johann Zarco. The penalty however was not enough to change Rossi’s results as he was ahead of third place finisher Dani Pedrosa by a good five seconds.

Zarco is the man on the move, piling the pressure on #VR46… who was forced to run off the track!#AmericasGP pic.twitter.com/Q6rwfVQQSb

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 23, 2017

Dani Pedrosa probably had his best performance since last year after having led the race for the first eight laps. Even towards the end of the race, the Spaniard kept his game strong with constant battles with Marquez and also Rossi. He eventually settled for a satisfactory third place finish.

“Overall it was a good weekend, much further up front. Some things could have been better but I’m happy overall. I got a clean start, finally, and starting from fourth I could have a clean line from the start. Leading the race for a few laps was amazing. I could have gone faster but I knew I had to take care of my tyres.” said Pedrosa after the race.

Fourth place was awarded to Cal Crutchlow from LCR Honda. The Brit rider gave a stunning performance catching up with Zarco in fourth position and had a few close encounters up until the last lap. Crutchlow was awarded the top independent rider after crossing the finish line ahead of the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 French rider.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) had a pretty uneventful but good race overall finishing in P6. Starting the race in seventh, Dovizioso took P6 after three laps and stayed there until the end of the race. His team mate, Jorge Lorenzo scored points in P9 after positive performance throughout the race up until the last three laps when Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki ECSTAR) took over P7 and Danilo Petrucci (OCTO Pramac Racing) in P8.

The top 10 is completed with Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) with over 18 seconds behind race winner, Marc Marquez.

The next round will head over to Circuito of Jerez, Spain for the Gran Premio Red Bull de Espana on 7 May 2017.

Photo source: MotoGP