2013 Indianapolis MotoGP Race Result: You hear that Mr. Anderson?... That is the sound of inevitability

By Mike Lewis | Sun, 18/08/2013 - 19:04

Results Below

 

Quotes from The Matrix notwithstanding, what appeared a foregone conclusion in Sunday’s Indianapolis MotoGP race was just that: Marc Marquez, who led every practice, won in dominating fashion, finishing three seconds ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa.

It wasn’t just the win that earned his rivals’ attention. Marquez shattered the pole and race lap records in the process; He won his third race in a row and fourth overall -- every American round -- and the rookie now leads the championship by a nearly a full race or 21 points over his Repsol teammate with eight races to go.

Moreover, he appears to be getting stronger as the season wears on.

Jorge Lorenzo, who fought gamely out front in the early part of the race, gave in to Marquez’s greater pace at the halfway mark and then opened the door to Pedrosa with three laps to go.  His third-place finish leaves him 35 points shy of the championship lead.

Even with Marquez’s greater pace, the three stayed clustered for most of the race, a master class of smooth, aggressive riding at the limit.

Deeper in the order, it was a very different story. If the front could be compared to fine dining, the back of the pack was a barroom punch out.

Valentino Rossi, who lingered in seventh for much of the race, made a dramatic late charge on worn tires. Over eight late laps, he ran some of the race’s fastest laps and barged past Stefan Bradl and later, Alvaro Bautista. On the last lap, he stuffed his Yamaha past Cal Crutchlow’s satellite bike to take a surprising fourth. Crutchlow finished fifth right on Rossi’s tail.

Bautista, who nearly got taken out in Rossi’s pass on Crutchlow came in sixth and Bradl arrived as a lonely seventh. Then came the Ducati teammates, Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso. Hayden, with little to lose in front of his home fans and no contract for next year, put nasty block pass on his teammate in the final corner of the last lap. The riders collided and went wide with Hayden now out front.

For a moment it looked as it Hayden had taken eighth but a canny Bradley Smith slipped to the inside of the fighting Ducatis and nipped Hayden to the line by half of a wheel length. Hayden finished ninth and Dovizioso tenth.

Results:

Pos. No. Rider Bike Time / Diff.
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda 44'52.463
2 26 Dani PEDROSA Honda 3.495
3 99 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 5.704
4 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 19.895
5 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha 19.955
6 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda 20.061
7 6 Stefan BRADL Honda 24.842
8 38 Bradley SMITH Yamaha 40.69
9 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati 40.701
10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 40.823
11 29 Andrea IANNONE Ducati 59.668
12 41 Aleix ESPARGARO ART +1'06.650
13 5 Colin EDWARDS FTR Kawasaki +1'09.462
14 71 Claudio CORTI FTR Kawasaki +1'15.207
15 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA FTR +1'20.159
16 8 Hector BARBERA FTR +1'25.879
17 9 Danilo PETRUCCI Ioda-Suter +1'29.616
18 70 Michael LAVERTY PBM +1'36.388
19 67 Bryan STARING FTR Honda 1 Lap
Not Classified
  68 Yonny HERNANDEZ ART 10 Laps
  52 Lukas PESEK Ioda-Suter 13 Laps
  14 Randy DE PUNIET ART 22 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
  79 Blake YOUNG APR 0 Lap

 

2013
9
MotoGP
Indianapolis, USA
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Comments

Why did the race go only 27 laps?

Is this a concession to the 21 litre fuel tanks?

Every Indy GP has been 28 laps, except for the first year, 2008, when it was run over 20 laps due to the severe weather which hit the area that year?

So what gives with shortening it by a lap - or did the locals forget to count?

It was because of tv-times. The race always ran one or two minutes longer than intended.

That was an entertaining race, good on Lorenzo and Pedrosa to at least challenge Marquez.

Good battles throughout the field as well, Rossi came back strong at the end there. Also disappointed in Bradl's pace, he looked way quicker in free practice.

..that the loss of 1 lap was due to TV timings and wanting to keep the race to 45 minutes (or thereabouts). Those extra 100s of the other lap could then be sold by the new US rights holders for a few more $$ in advertising revenue.

Awesome by Marquez. Someone is going to have to do a Rossi LS circa 2008, to break the spell, looks unbeatable at the mo... On Rossi, what happened there? one minute he was 10 secs (ish) back, then all of a sudden he was right behind Bradl? wtf? Good to see Bradders up there early on, will have done him a power of good.

Marc was lucky to walk away from all those stacks earlier in the year, but he's learning very quickly it would be hard to bet against him.

I'll be interested to see how Dani responds now. Many people were of the opinion that Dani had suddenly gotten stronger at the end of 2012, despite Stoner's injury and Jorge racing for 2nds after Misano. Dani's collarbone should be pretty much healed now so can he go on a late season charge again? If Dani can't respond his chances of ever winning a title are starting to slip away. But I think it will be Jorge who takes it to Marquez now if anyone can.

As MM marches through the victory I thought about Dani. With all due my respect to him as a great racer, I couldn't reason the decision by HRC of keeping him for 2014. He still has every chance to become a MotoGP champion this year or the next, though it seems highly unlikely given MM and JL's performance. If HRC would have used his service to develop the bike; their new star has different frame as he's bigger than Dani and different style for sure. If the Rookie is anywhere talented in giving right development feedback as much as trashing the bike on Sundays, couldn't there be more meaningful riders to replace Dani in 2014? Be it Scott Redding. He is young, is fast, has experience running with Marc. Or be it Cal, he is dawn entertaining both on or off track, has got the mojo, is faast. Or even Hayden, that guy must have been the hungriest them all for a win and has a known discipline in executing the parts tests. Don't know, it just seemed to me Dani is a way long in the tooth. I still adore him to wrestle with that monster MotoGP bike in front rows for so many years.

What a last lap!
It made up for the first part of the race.
Rossi, Hayden passes were spectacular (and the whole bagarre for 4th place).

I am not commenting Marquez because I have run out of adjectives.

Almost completely ruined by idiotic TV direction. I would have been nice to have seen the final few corners of the battle between Rossi, Crutchlow and Bautista as they happened, instead of having to wait for the replay after the race. His new thing seems to be showing us the riders' lap boards for some reason. Utterly infuriating!!!

They replayed the Hayden/Dovi clash on Eurosport....and in slow motion.....both got air off the kerb...Epic :O)
Get'em Nicky !!!!!

I'd love to see the contact between 04 & 69, then the bumps at Laguna Seca. I wonder if Audi will let them have at it or tell them to knock it off. It seems that kind of riding is the only way to get the red bike on TV. Today's math 4+69 < 38 proving that the GP13 is able to help British riders score championship points. Keep up the great work David!

The improvement may seem glacial to some, but the Ducati factory bikes are improving. In the past two years (2011 and 2012) Valentino Rossi was the first of the factory Ducatis home at Indy (Hayden striking major problems both years).

In 2011 Valentino was 55 seconds behind race winner Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) and in 2011 he was 57 seconds behind race winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda). That meant Rossi was two seconds/lap slower than the race winner.

This year, both factory Ducatis finished 40 seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), which is a 1.48 seconds/lap off the race winner's pace.

Added to that, the race was run at a faster pace, race average 152.20 km/h this year compared to 151.796 km/h last year.

Last year Valentino's race average speed was 148.735 km/h; this year Nicky Hayden averaged 149.90 km/h.

However, to indicate where the Japanese are, let's look at Rossi's race average this year on the Yamaha: 151.0 km/h.

While the Japanese bikes are going faster around the track, the fact Hayden and Dovizioso are closer to the front than the Ducati was in 2011 and 2012 indicates Ducati has actually made a bigger percentage improvement than either Yamaha or Honda.

So ninth may look bad, but it's actually better than seventh last year...

The weekends don't really show that at all. In 2011 Rossi had gearbox trouble, running off track at least once and if Hayden didn't have to pit, his results could have been better than 2013. In 2012 Rossi was basically cruising around the track, trying not to crash, and it's not a stretch at all to think Nicky would have had a more respectable finish.

2011: gearbox / pitted
2012: slow (rider setup) / DNS
2013: no problems

If anything, it shows no progress at all, as they easily could have been faster in 2011/2012 than 2013. It does show that Ducati will improve if they don't have massive setup issues, or mechanical problems. Problem is, that's no more useful to most dry race weekends than their rain performance is.

Points are points and 9th gets less than 7th. Not hard math there. If that is the break down of the rate Ducati is improving at this one particular track then wake every Ducati fan up in 2032 when they're regularly challenging for podiums.

Right! The Duck might get even faster next year further down at 11th position. And that is improvement to you.

Good show by NH and AD though, whom ejoyed most by BS. Sad to see NH leave the duck farm next year, wish him all the best.

VR, CC and AB fight was my greatest show of the night.

it has been widely acknowledged that the last second is the most difficult to find and the one that is most expensive. It is also the same second that has eluded all riders of the Ducati but one.
Regardless of the improvement, the gap is unacceptable.

Nice to see Nicky riding like he did in the AMA :)

What Id love to see is a Marc VDS team with proddy Hondas with Nicky as a main rider/mentor to Scott Redding , VDS paying for Scott and US Honda paying for Nick

... if you're tired of the commercial TV bs, then it's time for a subscription to the MotoGP feed. I gave up on Speed about three years ago, and canceled that part of my cable package for the race feed from the source. So, for about $6 a weekend I see every practice, every qualifying session, and every race live, and with no commercial breaks. True I am still at the mercy of the broadcast director, but I was also out of my seat for the entirety of the last laps. Marquez—spectacular in his precision, Rossi—focused in his charge when he finally figured it out. H/D—caught in live action, same with Bautusta when Rossi squeezed Crutchlow. I think I saw the back of Bautista's leathers fill a couple of times. He and Crutchlow were the best part of the show. Moto2 and Moto3 were just as good.

He only has Sacha Baron Cohen for a reference to the word 'Bruno'. And he hasn't yet realised that Valentino Rossi was not christened: 'Valentino Rossi, the 9-times world champion'.

Nor does he understand that it is possible to traverse a lowering in track elevation without 'plunging down' it. Or, for that matter, commentating on a pass that does not include: 'let battle commence', or suggesting that a race 'will go down to the wire'.

Nick Harris is a special person, with special needs. I think it is commendable of Dorna to support the intellectually challenged. OK, Nick might be rather more an intellectually defeated than challenged individual, but nobody's perfect.

Probably, the worst commentator in the entire world of television. If i'm ever watching the world feed I have to turn the audio level right down as even the sound of his voice tends to fill me with a sudden homicidal rage. Never mind about what he's actually saying, which is usually a load of crap as well.

Max, Oscar,
Couldn't agree more. Harris is the most sycophantic cretin I've ever heard comment on any sport. Not surprising his man love of VR, many brits are guilty of the same. Perhaps if the brits had had a world champ in the last 30 years it wouldn't be so.....but perhaps not with Harris, his love of VR is pathological...

Ok, he's bad, he doesn't watch the racing or he's blind and so he misses the starkly obvious... but all that is the norm for a principal TV commentator. His role is to just keep his mouth moving no matter what, since for whatever reason, people believe viewers might start thinking if left without commentary for 10s.

I've encountered far worse...

I know the aim of this site is to avoid this sort of savage, personal mud-slinging, but you have to admit, when it does happen it's of a far higher quality than on any other forum:-0

I used to watch some series or other from a south african channel years ago when living in southern africa and trust me, you haven't suffered anything until you've been forced to listen to commentating from someone who's background was clearly horse-racing.

Ah, but try listening to the inane ignorance of American commentators. The day Ralph Shaheen described Nori Haga's superbike as "the red one", I went off the deep end. Harris might be a commentating twit to many, but I'll take him any day over what we've endured in the US. Then again, maybe it's just that quaint British accent.

I have little perspective on who is bad and who is good given the States have only that fool Ralph Sheheen of Speed to comapre to. Compared to Ralph, Nick is an annoucing God.

And, I love my motogp subscription, but I wanted to give the new Fox Sports 1 a chance. Too bad they blew it with their typical baloney...This is what a brake disc does, this is Honda's HRC racer that looks like what you can buy but it is not.

And Scott Russell should stick to winning Daytona races, because he does not add to any broadcast.

I'm in total agreement with kburns68. I gave up on Speed last year, mostly because of the commercial breaks which always seemed to coincide with the rare pass that took place. For €90 (?) for the entire season you can stream full length practices, warmups, races, in all classes, plus there's all the races from previous years going back decades. The resolution is not as sharp as the HD feed on Speed, but that's the only negative.

It won't work on Firefox on a Mac so I have the race calendar page (no spoilers!) set up as a landing page in Safari and it works fine through that browser.

I only wish WSBK would have the same setup on their site.

As for AMA, we don't seem to get the new Fox network here in Vancouver, Canada so I've no idea where to find those races.

The MotoGP.com feed is expensive (and expansive) but it's worth it given what you get from race to warmup to qualifying to practice. One of the biggest side benefits is not having to deal with Speed and and its assumption that you broadcast a 45-minute sprint race in the same manner as a four-hour NASCAR snoozefest.

However, I do think MotoGP.com should keep a running, on-screen counter for how many times Gavin has to correct Nick each broadcast.

By the way, it was an added treat when Ben Spies was in the booth for a few races. (And now it looks like we might be headed for a repeat.) He provided dynamite, spot-on analysis.

Not just for this race, but I'll wager for a majority of the upcoming races this year as well. Marquez is looking so ominous he could wrap up the championship at PI or even Sepang at this rate.

I expected to log in and read comment after comment by those who criticized Kenan's move last week now criticizing Nicky. Instead, crickets ... wonder why?

Gotta love Marquez' ability to pass. Maybe Race Control could figure out a way to penalize him for infractions, real or imagined, and make him start at the back of the grid every weekend.

Just ... wow.

It is now OK to bounce off fellow riders. Once they let someone besides Rossi do something the precedent is set for the rest of the riders.

And didn't Dovi do the same to Nicky a few races back? Contact was not as bad but its still pushing your teammate wide on the last corner. Turnabout is fair play, as they say.

Chris
http://moto2-usa.blogspot.com/

Those passes were definitely not the same. Hayden squeezed on the inside of Dovi while entering the turn (and yes, a tight squeeze it was), Sofuoglu simply barged into Sam Lowes who was already at full lean on the apex of the corner. The fact that Lowes crashed and Dovi did not was not just another circumstance, it was the direct result of the difference in the two moves.

And then there is the little matter of rider history. Sofuoglu has done this kind of thing many, many times (plus some other completely insane moves), while Hayden cannot possibly be considered a dangerous rider ever during his long GP career. So I would say he has a bit more credit as well.

donadthegonad
10 years 1 month ago
Permalink

I have to watch the races on Spanish TV, Tele5, so be thankful, very thankful.
And what is up with the TV direction?! This race was horrific. I don't need to see pit boards, pit hoes, whinging parents or the clear race winner cross the finish line when I have waited 45 minutes for some action and it's all happening off camera.

is that you know it is coming.....the closer Vale got,(while pretty much having to imagine the Ducati battle),the more crushing it was to know we would soon see the clear 1,2,3 riders cross the line and much hugging to ensue....meanwhile,back at the race..WTF!!!!...It is beyond silly at this point.....absolutely no logic or understanding involved....just a yimyap with a joystick,apparently....

I guess every motogp viewer had this in the back of their mind that they'll have to watch the podium finishers crossing the finish line while they sorely missed the battle of the race... Everytime the director switched to rossi battle when he had already executed half the pass.. Same with crutchlow-bautista. And i don't remember if i saw the ducatis or the crts at all in the entire race... Such a stupid director he is... Same goes for the international commentators nick harris and gavin Emmett as well....

... they did show a replay of the last corner action. Both for the Rossi v Crutchlow v Bautista and Dovi v Hayden v Smith battles. In the past, that has not happened, so let's give credit where credit is due.

It is such a tradition that you have to show the winner take the flag, there would have been enormous complaints if they hadn't.

In fact I didn't mind the pit-board shots... seeing the guy running to change the board as Marquez closed in faster than expected was quite good fun :)

... grommett. Like everyone else I've run out of words to say about Marquez. It's not even as though he looks like he's absolutely on the limit. My greatest regret though is that if it wasn't for Marquez I think Pedrosa would have finally won a championship this year. How unlucky can you get.

Ditto other comments about Rossi, hugely entertaining and got the blood pumping at this end. Just like old times when he'd come from far behind. Shame there was another group of 3 way up the road ahead of the group he caught. I swear if the race had been 30 laps longer he'd have probably won.

I understand the tradition of showing the winner cross the line, but missing those two battles as a result was so dissapointing. Why can't they do split screen in very special circumstances such as these? Also, if you miss those battles due to finish line shots, you've got to replay the missed battles IN FULL afterward.

Brilliant by Marquez all weekend. I can't see him losing this championship hunt. King Kenny did it back then and Marquez is on the cusp of doing it now. He's clearly at one with the HRC GP bike and the chances of him getting spat off at any circuit from hereon in is pretty slim barring Ben Spies type rotten luck.
Speaking of Ben,witherto now? I've always been a big backer of his,but its gone from ridiculous to sublime.
Yamaha are on a hiding to nothing reminiscent of the Doohan era. HRC have 2 aliens and an alien test rider to Yamaha's one singleton alien racer.
Crutchlow is well shot of the transverse four outfit for a multitude of reasons. Oh yeah,Ducati. Embarrasing at best,but data to work with and rumour has it that some old faces present during the halcyon years may be back to augment the revival.
Nick Harris and 'poor old Ben Spies'. Nick Harris is okay. Murray Walker'esque.
'The only thing certain in GP is that nothing is certain'

There's simply no denying it anymore. Not that I ever did to start with. He's re-writing the record books a weekend at a time. I've not seen that kind of dominance since Stoner at P.I. Infact, not since Doohan. And VR's right, it's only going to get worse (actually, that should be better). Nakamoto-san cannot stop grinning. Looking at the horrors HRC went through in the 800 era he's going to be given the keys to HRC HQ very shortly. And if not, he bloody should be.

I still say (albeit a little quieter these days), Marquez has a mistake or 2 still in there. But, are they going to stop him...? Mmmmmmmmm, I'm not so sure anymore. I'm still calling Dani for the title. But Brno will be a good litmus test of that. A bit more of a Yamaha track. If you don't take into account the hill back up to the final corner. Can the M1 beat the RCV up there? Yes, yes it can, but can it do it with the RCV right up it's chuff? No, I don't think so. Dying to see what this new seemless box will bring for Valentino and Jorge when it's properly used. But it'll all be too late by then I'm afraid.

Cal Crutchlow, another great ride. And a fantastic effort from Bradders. Growing ALL the time. Great effort!!

Ben Spies. Was he actually Pol Pot or Himmler in a previous life? How he's even still around the Moto GP paddock is an amazing show of determination.

Are the Dukes getting quicker? Are they? Come on.......be honest.. maybe they are, but the others are as well. Roll on the Czech round!!

It's a very good thing that Stoner is not going to wildcard this season (PI may still happen) because he could ruin the 2013 championship fight for Marquez and/or Dani! Let the 2 Repsol-boys battle it out to the very end! If MM does claim the title this year, Dani may retire and let Stoner take his place for 2014. Now Hayden? It's time for American-Honda to step up and foot the bills for Hayden! HRC/Honda sat him on the curb many years ago which was a huge injustice to Hayden! He never said a negative word about them and his loyal character traits should be rewarded finally with a Honda MotoGP ride. NH69 is a huge marketing/money making tool plus he still has the passion of a true racer that wants to win (any battle) just ask Dovi! Grabbing air over the curb on a MotoGP bike... amazing.

He isn't racing.He doesn't count. His choice.Maybe he will come back.Maybe not.Till then,might as well be talking about Marquez facing Doohan as Stoner. The racers are on the track. The retirees deserve our respect of their accomplishments,but not our lamentations and speculations to the detriment of those currently competing. The last racer on the grid is in contention for a win relative to those who are ,by either father time or personal choice, consigned to the other side of the wall......MM needs to only stay healthy ,it seems,while Dani clearly has no quit in him and Jorge will not go quietly....Vale remains the Master fighter,perhaps more in a spoiler role for now,but expect big things at any given weekend....the rest battle for respect and podiums....Nicky has a lot left....let's hope he can stay and show it.....a good season and a historic debut....on the track....let's enjoy it....

Too many are writing Dani off yet again. Sure Marc is very fast. But Pedrosa isn't at 100% just yet. Marc is doing well to take advantage of the situation. We have to remember that Jorge had surgery to heal and secure his collarbone. He was able to workout and try to retain his fitness level. Dani didn't. He's been resting, and that showed in the race. You could clearly see in Parc Ferme that Dani was spent. He just sat there on the bike.

That being said, Dani will now have to push very hard this week to regain that lost fitness in time for Brno. Time is running out. I think we'll see a Dani back in Brno.

Yes, but if Marquez wins this weekend he'll have a whole race in hand and dani will probably have to win maybe four or five of the remaining races unless Marquez bins it in one or two. All very possible of course except within another two or three races Marquez can start playing safe whereas dani will have to push to the limits. Who then do you think is more likely to crash out, especially given relative fitness levels and spoilers like cal, bradl and Rossi. And as for Jorge, game over already for this year in my book.