Movistar Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales won the 2018 Australian MotoGP on Sunday (28/10), in a race marked by a failure to finish the 2018 MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez.
Australian MotoGP races take place early on. Danilo Petrucci had the chance to lead the race in the first corner, but the Italian rider lost control at the second corner and off the track. Petrucci teammate at Pramac, Jack Miller, then led the race over Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone.
Marc Marquez then successfully overtook Miller at the first corner of the second lap. Entering the fifth lap, Andrea Dovizioso successfully overtook Marquez. Competition from the first to the seventh rider is very tight, only 1.5 seconds apart.
The drama then takes place on the sixth lap. Johann Zarco hit the rear of the Marquez motorbike on a straight line into the first corner. Zarco bounced and fell while Marquez continued to drop his position due to damage to the rear of the 2018 Honda RC213V motorcycle that he rode. One lap after Marquez decided to enter the garage and did not continue the race.
Entering the eighth lap, Yamaha dominated the race when Maverick Vinales and Rossi managed to overtake Dovizioso to be in one-two positions. Vinales looks amazing. Had dropped to ninth position on the first lap, Vinales managed to lead the race at Phillip island.
Repsol Honda was really bad at this race. Dani Pedros was also confirmed to have failed to finish after crashing at the fourth corner on lap 12.
Vinales went ahead when the race entered the 16th with 2.5 seconds ahead of Alvaro Bautista who appeared in the Australian MotoGP replacing Jorge Lorenzo. While Rossi slipped to fifth after being overtaken by Bautista, Dovizioso and Iannone.
When the race for the second place took place tightly, Vinales was ahead more than three seconds on lap 23. Iannone was second on this lap, ahead of Dovizioso and Bautista. While Rossi actually slipped to sixth position after overtaking Alex Rins.
Vinales finally managed to finish the race by finishing first, followed by Iannone and Dovizioso. This is Yamaha’s first victory in the 2018 MotoGP. Yamaha also won its first victory in MotoGP since June 25, 2017 in the Netherlands.
Australian 2018 MotoGP race results:
1. MAVERICK VINALES 40 minutes 51,081 seconds
2. ANDREA IANNONE +1.543 seconds
3. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO +1,832 seconds
4. ALVARO BAUTISTA +4,072 seconds
5. ALEX RINS +5,017 seconds
6. VALENTINO ROSSI + 5.132 seconds
7. JACK MILLER +6,756 seconds
8. FRANCO MORBIDELLI +21,805 seconds
9. ALEIX ESPARGARO +22,904 seconds
10. BRADLEY SMITH +22,940 seconds
