Marquez wins epic duel with Lorenzo

World Champion Marc Márquez claimed his third victory of 2015 as he continued his unbeaten MotoGP record in the United States.

Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez

Márquez kept within half a second of long-time leader Jorge Lorenzo at Indianapolis and claimed the advantage with three laps to go to ensure he has taken victory on each of his seven starts at American circuits in the premier class.

Lorenzo collected second position while championship leader Valentino Rossi prevailed over Dani Pedrosa to take third, though his title advantage was cut to nine points. 

Lorenzo made the best start and got ahead of both Honda riders by Turn 1, demoting Márquez to second and Pedrosa to third.

Lorenzo and Márquez circulated within three-tenths of a second of each across the first half of the race, with the Honda rider shadowing his Yamaha rival, but never threatening to make a move.

Lorenzo and Márquez gradually pulled away from Pedrosa, who was forced onto the defensive against Rossi, the Italian having moved up from eighth place on the grid.

Rossi hounded Pedrosa for several laps before pouncing at Turn 2, ensuring that Pedrosa was not able to immediately retaliate.

Lorenzo continued to hold a slender advantage over Márquez though teams readied spare bikes in the pit lane as light rain began to fall with eight laps remaining.

Ultimately, the rain had little effect and with three laps remaining Márquez dived up the inside of Lorenzo into Turn 1 to take the lead of the race.

Lorenzo remained with Márquez briefly but the leader pulled away across the final lap to claim victory, Honda's sixth in succession at Indianapolis.

Pedrosa came back at Rossi across the final few laps and the pair swapped positions a couple of times, before Rossi robustly settled matters at Turn 2, continuing his 100% podium record in 2015.

Ducati's Andrea Iannone narrowly beat Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith to fifth position while Pol Espargaró took seventh and Cal Crutchlow recovered to eighth following a poor start.

Andrea Dovizioso ran wide at Turn 2 on the first lap but battled back to take ninth, while Pramac's Danilo Petrucci completed the top 10.

Suzuki failed to get either of its bikes into the Top 10 for the first time since the season opener in Qatar as Maverick Viñales placed 11th and Aleix Espargaró finished 14th.

22 of the 23 starters made it to the finish, with Jack Miller the only exception after crashing out at Turn 6.