Argentina GP summary

“A sweet feeling with the bike”
The 2019 Motorcycle Grand Prix of Argentina’s drama splattered race was dominated by Marc Márquez, from start to finish nobody else got a look in, Márquez had the perfect race and would have finished the race some 13 seconds up the road had he not slowed right down into the final corner and gingerly crossed the line as he celebrated opposite his team cheering from the pit wall. The race’s main focus though, came from the battle behind, for 2nd position and beyond. With Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi exchanging places almost every other lap for 2nd place, with Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller, Franco Morbidelli and the late race surging Alex Rins intermittently joining in the succulent battle.

Rider of the day has to go to Márquez just for the sheer dominance of his whole weekends performance, but notable rides went on all down the field. Taka Nakagami punched above his station managing a delicious 7th place and his best finish in the premier class. Alex Rins also had a good race, especially considering from how far back he came to finish a solid 5th position. Jack Miller also had a very strong result with a 4th place finish. As far as disappointing results go Morbidelli was also having a great race, until he ran into the back of Maverick Viñales in the closing laps who, himself seemed to struggle all race long to keep up with Rossi and co, much the same way as Joán Mir’s race went, almost at the very tail end of the pack until he retired on lap 22 listed as a tyre vibration issue.

Britain’s Cal Crutchlow was given a ride-through penalty on lap one for what seemed to be a jump start. Until the replay during the race was shown, and it was impossible to see from the images on the world feed that a jump start even occurred. Whilst it’s not likely Cal would have challenged for the victory, it is worthy of note that this track is a track that Crutchlow normally does well at, and given his pace, he surely had the potential for a podium ruined by this penalty. In this case however, Cal, understandably was angry and perplexed as to why he was given a penalty for a jump start. Despite this, he did manage a handful of points by pulling it home in 13th position.

The next event is on April 14th at the COTA Circuit in Austin, Texas.