MotoGP’s Gran Premio Red Bull de la República Argentina came down to a battle between two previous world champions: Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi. Marquez was in the lead, but Rossi was coming up on him fast on a more durable rear tire compound than Marquez.
MotoGP- Marc Márquez Crashes Defending Against... by bigcocomero
There was no telling who would win this race. Marquez had maintained the lead, but was on an hard rear tire compared to the extra-hard tire Rossi was on. Rossi finally passed Marquez with two laps to go, but Marquez immediately took an inside line back around to the front.
Shortly afterwards, Rossi got around Marquez for the last time. Rossi stayed upright longer than Marquez as the two transitioned side-by-side into the next turn, causing Marquez to fall.
According to Crash.net, Race Control placed the incident under investigation immediately afterwards, but it was later deemed a racing incident, and no penalties were assigned.
Marquez has finally met his match for this season. Rossi takes yet another win this year, making it two wins to Marquez’s one at Circuit of the Americas.
Edit: The first version of this article had the tire compounds the two writers are on switched. (I was wondering how a softer compound could be picking up speed at the end of a race...) Anyway, it’s been fixed and now the reason why Rossi caught up to Marquez makes much more sense.
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.