Rossi wins Argentina Grand Prix after dramatic clash with Marquez
Valentino Rossi captured his second victory of the year on Sunday after a dramatic clash with Marc Marquez in the Red Bull Argentina Grand Prix.
The reigning MotoGP World Champion Marquez, along with CWM LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, decided to switch to the hard rear tire on the grid, unlike Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo who both decided to use the extra-hard compound rear.
Aleix Espargaro led into the first corner, but Marquez passed the Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR rider almost immediately and used his hard tire to create a four-second gap at the front. At about mid-race distance, Marquez's tires appeared to start to lose performance meaning that the chasing pack, led at this point by Rossi, started to close in on the leader. "The Doctor" had worked his way through the pack from eighth on the grid and could sense victory, as he was lapping almost a second quicker than Marquez.
The nine-time World Champion eventually caught Marquez with just two laps to go with the two riders touching, before Marquez clipped the back of Rossi's bike and crashed out of the race. Rossi went on to take the race win by over five seconds ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in second, with Crutchlow stealing the final podium spot from Andrea Iannone on the very last corner.
Rossi's teammate Lorenzo finished in fifth ahead of Bradley Smith. Aleix Espargaro ended the race in seventh, ahead of his brother Pol, with Scott Redding and Maverick Vinales completing the top 10.
CWM LCR Honda's Jack Miller took the Open class victory as he finished in 12th, just 0.075s ahead of Hector Barbera on the Avintia Ducati.
Rossi now has a six-point lead over Dovizioso in the MotoGP World Championship standings, and is 30 points ahead of Marquez.
Check out the full MotoGP race results.
