MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Although teams kept one eye on the sky after a sprinkling of rain threatened Moto3 qualifying beforehand, the weather woes never materialised, and Marc Marquez remained the biggest threat on track. The poleman expertly managed the gap to his sole chaser – familiarly Alex Marquez, in another exquisite Saturday for the Marquez household. Also in a déjà vu from the opening round, an unimpressed Pecco Bagnaia joined them on the sprint podium in front of a much more animated Argentine crowd. 

Marc and Alex Marquez maintained the status quo from the start, while Bagnaia immediately attacked a sluggish Johann Zarco to depose him of third position off the line. The Frenchman dropped more places to a fast-starting Fabio Quartararo and also to Pedro Acosta, the duo keen to harass Bagnaia early on. Fabio Di Giannantonio, Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi and Joan Mir completed the early top 10, after Brad Binder crashed out of 9^th position on the opening lap, unhelpfully nudged by Morbidelli’s attack. 

By lap two, the Marquezes were unperturbed at the front, exchanging fastest laps and stretching just enough of a gap to Bagnaia to avoid an attack. The Italian found himself almost a second behind the duo only one lap later and had a big group hot on his tail. After the initial surge, Quartararo started to lose some ground to both Acosta and Zarco, but neither managed to show a wheel to Bagnaia over the next few laps and the KTM man allowed the Ducati rider a second of breathing room after only a handful of laps. Making matters worse, Zarco was recovering well from his poor start and soon attacked the Spaniard for 4^th, Di Giannantonio also taking advantage soon after to claim 5^th. Acosta dropped to 6^th but still had Bezzecchi, Morbidelli, Quartararo and Mir in tow. 

Back at the front, Marc Marquez still had his brother glued to his rear wheel at the halfway point of proceedings – the gap rarely over two tenths of a second. Until lap eight that is, when the poleman found something extra to add a couple more tenths to the tally, and although the Gresini rider was matching his red patches on the timing screens, the gap continued to grow little by little – up to seven tenths with three laps to go. Meanwhile, Bagnaia had dropped over two seconds back and although he was posting his best laps, the gap wasn’t budging. It did help him keep Zarco at arm’s length by over a second – the Frenchman still posting pretty impressive lap times and making sure Di Giannantonio didn’t get a change to catch up. 

Faultless until the end, Marc Marquez took the chequered flag nearly a second ahead of Alex, with Bagnaia completing a familiar top 3 three seconds later. Although missing out on the podium by one second, Zarco secured a fantastic fourth place for Honda, with Di Giannantonio a solid 5^th. Bezzecchi and Morbidelli did not make much noise in the later stages on their way to 6^th and 7^th, while Mir and Acosta did provide some late entertainment in the battle for 8^th – won by the Honda man in the closing stages. Quartararo completed the top 10 for Yamaha but missing out on points by one second. 

Marquez’s repeated triumph extends his advantage in the world championship to 11 points over Alex Marquez, with Bagnaia 19 points behind in 3^rd. Morbidelli and Ai Ogura stay in the top 5, with Zarco progressing into 6^th, 34 points behind the leader. 

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