Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards, the lone Americans in MotoGP, posted solid finishes at yesterday’s season-opening race in Doha, Qatar. The 22-lap race featured curious crashes which took out many of the top riders in the field, including two-time champion Jorge Lorenzo who crashed while leading on the very first lap.
Defending series champion, 21-year old Repsol Factory Honda rider Marc Marquez came away from the crash-riddled race with his first victory of the 2014 campaign. Marquez withstood a very strong performance from nine-time series champion and fan-favorite Valentino Rossi to take the win. Rossi started 10th on the grid and slowly but surely worked his way up to the back wheel of Marquez, pushing the sophomore Spaniard to his limit. On the final lap, Rossi appeared poised to strike at nearly all of the 16-turn Losail Circuit but Marquez hit his marks and shut the door every time keeping Rossi at bay.
Marquez, who broke his ankle just six weeks ago in a training crash, said that the final lap was the greatest lap he’s ever ridden on a MotoGP bike.
The race got off on an interesting foot as championship favorite Jorge Lorenzo wrecked his Movistar Factory Yamaha on the very first lap as the front tucked when the two-time champ got on his front brake entering turn 15. In typical Lorenzo style, the Spaniard bolted from the second row of the starting grid and took the holeshot into turn one, leading the entirety of the lap before crashing out of the race.
From there German Stefan Bradl took the lead for several laps before crashing on the exact same turn as Lorenzo, putting him out of the race on lap 8.
Marquez then assumed the lead and only looked back on one lap as Lorenzo’s Movistar Factory Yamaha teammate Rossi was able to get around the young champion on lap 19 but was unable to hold off Marquez, finishing just .259 behind.
Marquez’ Repsol Factory Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa finished third, three seconds behind the top two.
Kentuckian Hayden, who has notably struggled with the lack of power on the non-factory Honda RCV1000R rallied from a 13th starting position to finish eighth, just .02 seconds behind seventh-place finisher Scott Redding. “We set a great pace at the start of the race, now we need to work on the second half and try to improve on what we have learned here,” said Hayden.
Edwards also nabbed a top-ten finish as he crossed the line seven seconds behind Hayden. The Texan started 14th and moved up
as riders crashed and slowed due to technical problems.
The series takes two weeks off before coming across the pond on April 13th at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.