Between Saturday and today, many events disrupted the progress of the Argentine Grand Prix, particularly in the MotoGP category.
After the Scott Redding incident, Michelin first decided to play it safe by removing both the medium tire and the hard tire from the allocation. In return, Michelin decides to offer a compulsory special 'safety' tire.
Michelin, Race Direction and starting procedure
Only, it was without counting on the arrival of rain last night. The free practice session scheduled for this morning was therefore canceled, firstly because the track was dry and secondly, because the teams simply did not have enough fuel for additional sessions.
Thus, it was a drying track that the MotoGP warm up was held. But, in a new twist, after several attempts, the Race Direction decides to apply the following procedure, depending on the track conditions:
If the start is in the dry:
– The race will consist of 20 laps (flag-to-flag) with a mandatory pit stop between laps 9 and 11.
– If it rains during the race, the Race Direction will assess the dangerousness of the situation and decide to interrupt the race with a red flag
– Teams will have 15 minutes between the raising of the red flag and the opening of the pitlane to make their adjustments.
– The second race will consist of 10 laps and grid positions will be decided based on standings positions before the red flag.
If the start is in the wet:
– Drivers will be able to change machines from the end of their 9th lap,
– If the race is interrupted after more than 13 laps, the race will be over and the classification will be final.
Note that there are no intermediate tires since they share the same base as the tire that caused the problem yesterday.
And it is precisely the first option which is implemented at the start of the race. The drivers can thus use the Medium or the Hard, although they were withdrawn last night from the allocation, but they will have to go through their box to change machines.
This story is reminiscent of the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. Bridgestone had not evaluated the new surface of the Phillip Island circuit. So the tires were simply destroyed after 10 laps. To deal with this problem, Race Direction had therefore imposed a flag-to-flag race to force the riders to change bikes (and tires). Marc Marquez had also paid a dear price, since he did not stop and was disqualified with a black flag.
Two motorcycles, two different races
The best start of this atypical race was made by Jorge Lorenzo who took the lead at the first corner in front of his teammate Valentino Rossi. But Andrea Dovizioso took advantage of the power of the D16 GP to take command of the race ahead of Rossi, Marquez and Viñales. Andrea Iannone completed the Top 5 after failing to hit Marquez, while Lorenzo found himself relegated to 6th position at the start of the second lap.
Dovizioso, Rossi and Marquez quickly widened the gap on the Suzuki of Viñales and the Ducati of Iannone. Lorenzo is struggling to keep up with the duo in 4th place and is already 2.1 seconds behind Dovizioso. Jack Miller took the opportunity to overtake the Majorcan who found himself in 7th position, but the Australian made a mistake. After three laps completed, Loris Baz completed the Top 10 and took advantage of Miller's fall to move up to 7th position in a battle with his teammate Hector Barbera.
Marquez takes the lead with 17 laps to go. Rossi took the opportunity to follow the Spaniard and gain the upper hand over the Ducati. Behind, Lorenzo is struggling to maintain the pace. The reigning Champion makes a mistake and is forced to retire. Marquez and Rossi find themselves alone in the lead to the advantage of the Honda driver.
After nine laps have been completed, riders can (and must start) changing machines. As the two leaders chose to go one more lap, most of the field changed bikes.
Rossi and Marquez stop on lap 10. The two drivers execute a perfect choreography to change machines. They come out in the same order they came in. Marquez regains the lead of the race ahead of Rabat (who will wait until the next lap to stop), Rossi, Viñales and Dovizioso. Iannone still completes the Top 5 ahead of Pedrosa, Redding and Barbera. Baz dropped to 10th position.
Rossi, slightly hampered by Rabat, lost contact with his rival Honda. The Italian then has almost 5 seconds with eight laps to go and less than a second ahead of the Suzuki of Viñales and the official Ducati duo.
Viñales places himself in the wake of Rossi, but while trying to keep pace, the Spaniard makes a mistake, leaving Iannone and Dovizioso to put pressure on the Yamaha. While Rossi gives up on the podium, Iannone, braking a little too optimistically, falls, dragging his teammate with him.
Rossi finally finished second behind Marquez, a place as unexpected as Pedrosa's 3rd who climbed the podium. Laverty finished first satellite rider in 4th position ahead of Barbera, Pol Espargaro and Bradl who placed the first Aprilia in the Top 10.
Only 13 riders crossed the finish line, the last being Andrea Dovizioso who pushed his machine…
| Pos | The point system | number | Pile | Country | Team | Motorcycle | Km / h | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 93 | Marc Márquez | SPA & WELLNESS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 168.4 | 34'13.628 |
| 2 | 20 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Yamaha Motor Racing | Yamaha | 167.8 | +7.679 |
| 3 | 16 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA & WELLNESS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 166.2 | +28.100 |
| 4 | 13 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 165.5 | +36.542 |
| 5 | 11 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA & WELLNESS | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 165.5 | +36.711 |
| 6 | 10 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | SPA & WELLNESS | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 165.4 | +37.245 |
| 7 | 9 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 165.1 | +41.353 |
| 8 | 8 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 164.4 | +50.709 |
| 9 | 7 | 53 | Tito RABAT | SPA & WELLNESS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 164.4 | +50.983 |
| 10 | 6 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA & WELLNESS | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 163.6 | + 1'01.388 |
| 11 | 5 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | SPA & WELLNESS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 163.0 | + 1'08.868 |
| 12 | 4 | 51 | Michael PIRRO | ITA | OCTO Yakhnich bow | Ducati | 162.2 | + 1'18.987 |
| 13 | 3 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 161.1 | + 1'33.419 |
| Unclassified | ||||||||
| 29 | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 167.8 | 1 Tour | ||
| 35 | Cal Crutchlow | GBR | Honda LCR | Honda | 164.2 | 1 Tour | ||
| 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA & WELLNESS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 167.5 | 3 Tours | ||
| 45 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Yakhnich bow | Ducati | 165.2 | 5 Tours | ||
| 76 | Loris BAZ | FRA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 161.7 | 8 Tours | ||
| 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | SPA & WELLNESS | Yamaha Motor Racing | Yamaha | 167.9 | 15 Tours | ||
| 43 | Jack Miller | AUS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 166.8 | 17 Tours | ||
| 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 164.1 | 18 Tours | ||
