MotoGP: Maverick makes it two of two

The Argentinian GP was more of the same - a lot of unexpected things happened. We never expected Maverick to win this easily. Marc Marquez was the man to beat, despite the Honda being one of the most difficult motorcycles to muscle around. He started from pole and almost ran away with it, but Turn 2 caught him out under braking, as it did with Dani Pedrosa as well. It wasn't a good day for Honda, but the face-saving ride of the day was made by Cal Crutchlow, who brought his LCR Honda in, in third place. Cal wasn't very happy with his Honda; his post-race interviews revealed that one, he knew he had the pace to keep up with Maverick but a warning light on the dashboard made sure that he had to give up second place to Rossi. The other big factory team, Ducati, lost both its bikes to incidents with other bikes. Lorenzo ran into the rear tyre of Iannone at the very first corner, and Aleix Espargaro (who was having another great race) lost his front in the closing stages of the race, and took Dovizioso out along with him. The first of the Ducati finishers was Alvaro Bautista on the Aspar Ducati in fourth place. Fifth and sixth went to the Tech3 Yamaha team, with both rookies bringing their bikes home in the points. Andrea Iannone got a ride-through penalty for jumping the start, and finished outside the points. Looking at the results of the Argentinian GP is a strange thing - the first two finishers are factory riders, and so are the last three. Everyone in the middle was on a satellite bike. KTM will like this result, though - they garnered their first MotoGP points here, with Espargaro and Smith finishing in 14th and 15th respectively. 

Rossi needs to have a big trophy cabinet - he got his 223rd trophy with his second place finish in his 350th GP race. He had a miserable weekend but managed to pull yet another one out of his hat to get second place. He now stands 14 points adrift of Maverick in the riders' championship, in second place. Dovizioso remains in third place despite his DNF, and Scott Redding is fourth in the standings. 

The next MotoGP race is the Grand Prix of the Americas, which will be held in Texas in two weeks' time.