Argentina: The good, the bad and the unlucky

motogp.com's season review continues - next up is Termas de Rio Hondo

After a more muted podium in the first race of the year, eventual Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) took the Championship lead for the first time as the flag dropped in Argentina, as both Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) registered their first podium finishes of the year. Eugene Laverty (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) was the top Indepedent Team rider - taking an incredible P4.

Dueling with nemesis Rossi until the bike swap in the flag-to-flag race, Marquez proved the class of the field in the drying conditions - as he would in Germany later in the season - and took off to dominate by the end of the race. 25 points in the bag with Qatar’s big scorers both crashing out – Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) on a wet patch and Andrea Dovizioso on a patch of bad luck after teammate Andrea Iannone collided with him – saw Marquez make the biggest gain in South America. And next up? His signature track, the Circuit of the Americas.

The biggest news, other than the crash for reigning Champion Lorenzo, was undoubtedly the Ducati incident. On the last lap and both looking set for podium finishes, Iannone’s move on his teammate saw him slide out and take ‘DesmoDovi’ with him – as well as 36 points for the team. It was Iannone’s second DNF in succession and saw Dovizioso’s Qatar promise take a hit – although the older Italian heroically lifted up his bike and pushed it to the line, such was the short distance before the flag that the incident happened. It was the second finish on foot of the day in Argentina, after Adam Norrodin did the same after a last lap crash in Moto3™.