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april 09, 2018 - LCR Honda

MotoGP - LCR Honda, Crutchlow Wins on Historic Day for Honda

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL RC213V) made history today, winning Honda’s 750th Grand Prix victory at the end of a thrilling battle with Frenchman Johann Zarco and Spaniard Alex Rins at #termasderiohondo.

Honda’s latest milestone in the premier category of motorcycle #racing comes almost exactly 57 years after Tom Phillis won the company’s first Grand Prix victory at Montjuich Park in Barcelona, Spain, on April 23, 1961.

But while Crutchlow took #MotoGP glory for the third time in his career, the Argentine Grand Prix was less successful for Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC213V), who had dominated practice and were both expected to be in the battle for victory.

Pedrosa started from the front row, only to fall on the first lap, following an incident with Zarco. Marquez started from the second row and rode at an astonishing pace but finished outside the points after suffering several penalties.

The second round of Grand Prix racing’s 70th season was certainly worthy of history – it was a thriller from start to finish. The 24-lap race got underway late, due to changing track conditions that caused 23 of the 24 riders to leave the grid to switch to slick tires. The race finally got underway on a track that was still damp in many places from earlier rain. Marquez took the lead on the second lap, riding at amazing speed, despite the treacherous conditions. However, he was given a ride-through penalty for a grid infringement, which dropped him out of the fight.

That left a four-way contest for the lead between Crutchlow, Zarco, Rins and pole-starter Jack Miller, who later faded to leave the other three swapping positions until the very end. Crutchlow rode a superb race, saving his tires at the back of the group and only pushing forward in the final stages, when each of the trio took turns in the lead. His winning advantage over Zarco was just 0.251 seconds, with Rins a further two seconds back.

Afterwards Crutchlow praised HRC for its winter development programme that has made the RC213V both faster and easier to ride. This was the 32-year-old Briton’s third #MotoGP victory, all with Honda RC213V machinery, following his successes in the 2016 Czech and Australian Grands Prix.

Marquez’s ride-through pushed him back to 19th position on lap seven, but once again his pace was miraculous. He fought his way up to fifth place at the chequered flag but had a 30-second penalty imposed upon him – for a collision with former World Champion Valentino Rossi – which dropped him to 18th and out of the points.

Two of Honda’s three #MotoGP rookies did make it into the points. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU RC213V) and Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) were riding only their second races in the premier-class but finished 13th and 14th, ahead of the final points-scorer, former #MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. These were impressive results considering the tricky conditions.

Nakagami rode particularly well. The 26-year-old former Moto2 race winner made steady progress, climbing into the point-scoring positions at two-thirds distance. His result was further cause for celebration in the LCR Honda garage.

Reigning Moto2 World Champion Morbidelli scored his points despite making the wrong tire choice. The 23-year-old Italian recovered brilliantly from a slow start, which put him 22nd at the end of the first lap, to cross the line nine seconds behind Nakagami and a fraction of a second ahead of Lorenzo.

Honda’s third #MotoGP rookie Thomas Luthi (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) finished 17th. The 31-year old admitted that the weekend’s constantly changing weather had hampered his ability to adapt to the race conditions.

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