2018 Argentine Republic motorcycle Grand Prix

  2018 Argentine Republic Grand Prix

Race details
Race 2 of 19 races in the 2018 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	8 April 2018
Official name	Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina
Location	Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo, Santiago del Estero, Argentina
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.806 km (2.986 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position Rider Jack Miller Ducati Time 1:47.153 Fastest lap Rider Marc Márquez Honda Time 1:39.902 on lap 22 Podium First Cal Crutchlow Honda Second Johann Zarco Yamaha Third Álex Rins Suzuki
Moto2
Pole position Rider Xavi Vierge Kalex Time 1:56.137 Fastest lap Rider Xavi Vierge Kalex Time 1:44.329 on lap 21 Podium First Mattia Pasini Kalex Second Xavi Vierge Kalex Third Miguel Oliveira KTM
Moto3
Pole position Rider Tony Arbolino Honda Time 1:53.782 Fastest lap Rider Jorge Martín Honda Time 1:55.968 on lap 18 Podium First Marco Bezzecchi KTM Second Arón Canet Honda Third Fabio Di Giannantonio Honda

The 2018 Argentine Republic motorcycle Grand Prix was the second round of the 2018 MotoGP season. It was held at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo in Santiago del Estero on 8 April 2018. In the MotoGP class, Jack Miller scored his first MotoGP pole position.

Having been declared a wet race at the time of the sighting lap, all but one rider selected rain tires. Pole-sitter Jack Miller being the only rider to initially go out on slick tires. Prior to the warm-up lap, every rider on rain tires elected to return to the pits to change to slick tires. Returning to the pits after the sighting lap usually results in the rider starting the race from pit-lane, however, the race officials deemed it a safety concern to have all but one rider start from pit-lane. The start of the race was delayed due to the unusual situation. Eventually, the grid was reset positioning the entire field in their original qualifying positions, but filling the grid from the rear. The result was Jack Miller (who didn't return to the pits for a tire change) in the first position on the grid and the other riders in formation several rows back.

After the warm-up lap, Marc Márquez stalled his motorcycle while lining up on the grid. Attempting to restart his bike, Márquez pushed the motorcycle away from his grid position. He was successful in restarting the stalled motorcycle, but race officials ran out and instructed him to return to pit-lane. Márquez ignored the race officials' instructions, proceeded to ride his motorcycle back in the opposite direction toward his original starting position and rejoined the rest of the riders who were all waiting for the race start. After jumping to an early lead, Marc Márquez was issued a ride-through penalty for riding his motorcycle in the opposite direction on the track. Rejoining near the back of the field, Márquez began advancing position passing slower riders. In his attempt to regain positions, Márquez was issued a second penalty when he collided into Aleix Espargaró being required to drop a position for irresponsible riding. Márquez earned his third penalty of the race for crashing into yet another rider. This time he collided into Valentino Rossi in the closing stages of the race, resulting in Rossi being pushed onto the wet grass where he fell. Rossi was able to remount and finish the race, but was unable to secure any points after being taken out by Márquez. Márquez continued to finish the race in 5th position, which would have earned 11 championship points, but receiving a 30-second time penalty after the race for crashing into Rossi put him outside of a points earning position. In this race, Marc Márquez earned 3 separate penalties.

In the closing laps there were multiple passes for the podium positions between Zarco, Rins and Crutchlow as the riders struggled with tire wear and damp patches on the track.

Cal Crutchlow took Honda's 750th victory and became the first non-factory rider to lead the championship since Sete Gibernau in the 2004 Catalan Grand Prix, as well as the first British rider to lead the championship since Barry Sheene in 1979. Repsol Honda failed to score for the first time since the previous year's event.

Classification

MotoGP

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	35	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda Castrol	Honda	24	40:36.342	10	25
2	5	Johann Zarco	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	24	+0.251	3	20
3	42	Álex Rins	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	24	+2.501	5	16
4	43	Jack Miller	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	24	+4.390	1	13
5	25	Maverick Viñales	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	24	+14.941	9	11
6	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Team	Ducati	24	+22.533	8	10
7	53	Tito Rabat	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	24	+23.026	4	9
8	29	Andrea Iannone	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	24	+23.921	12	8
9	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	24	+24.311	23	7
10	9	Danilo Petrucci	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	24	+26.003	18	6
11	44	Pol Espargaró	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	24	+31.022	16	5
12	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	24	+31.891	15	4
13	30	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda Idemitsu	Honda	24	+32.452	24	3
14	21	Franco Morbidelli	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	24	+42.061	22	2
15	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati Team	Ducati	24	+42.274	14	1
16	19	Álvaro Bautista	Ángel Nieto Team	Ducati	24	+42.625	19
17	12	Thomas Lüthi	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	24	+43.350	20
18	93	Marc Márquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	24	+43.860	6
19	46	Valentino Rossi	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	24	+52.082	11
20	17	Karel Abraham	Ángel Nieto Team	Ducati	24	+1:03.944	13
21	10	Xavier Siméon	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	24	+1:10.144	17
Ret	38	Bradley Smith	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	17	Accident	21
Ret	41	Aleix Espargaró	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	13	Electronics	7
Ret	26	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	0	Accident	2
Sources:

Moto2

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	54	Mattia Pasini	Kalex	23	40:37.538	4	25
2	97	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	23	+0.850	1	20
3	44	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	23	+1.414	7	16
4	7	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	23	+5.178	2	13
5	73	Álex Márquez	Kalex	23	+5.431	8	11
6	87	Remy Gardner	Tech 3	23	+10.425	9	10
7	36	Joan Mir	Kalex	23	+13.379	17	9
8	77	Dominique Aegerter	KTM	23	+13.460	11	8
9	42	Francesco Bagnaia	Kalex	23	+22.038	15	7
10	23	Marcel Schrötter	Kalex	23	+22.867	20	6
11	27	Iker Lecuona	KTM	23	+24.102	21	5
12	52	Danny Kent	Speed Up	23	+25.972	3	4
13	22	Sam Lowes	KTM	23	+26.010	6	3
14	32	Isaac Viñales	Kalex	23	+31.769	13	2
15	5	Andrea Locatelli	Kalex	23	+33.264	26	1
16	10	Luca Marini	Kalex	23	+33.828	12
17	45	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	23	+48.603	23
18	4	Steven Odendaal	NTS	23	+50.651	14
19	13	Romano Fenati	Kalex	23	+51.594	19
20	40	Héctor Barberá	Kalex	23	+53.070	18
21	62	Stefano Manzi	Suter	23	+53.260	32
22	20	Fabio Quartararo	Speed Up	23	+56.979	28
23	24	Simone Corsi	Kalex	23	+59.266	22
24	89	Khairul Idham Pawi	Kalex	23	+1:10.121	27
25	16	Joe Roberts	NTS	23	+1:12.051	10
26	63	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	Kalex	23	+1:32.993	31
27	21	Federico Fuligni	Kalex	23	+1:33.218	30
28	64	Bo Bendsneyder	Tech 3	23	+1:36.078	25
29	51	Eric Granado	Suter	23	+1:38.951	24
Ret	9	Jorge Navarro	Kalex	3	Exhaust	5
Ret	41	Brad Binder	KTM	1	Collision	16
Ret	95	Jules Danilo	Kalex	1	Retired	29
OFFICIAL MOTO2 REPORT

Moto3

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Marco Bezzecchi	KTM	21	41:43.822	2	25
2	44	Arón Canet	Honda	21	+4.689	8	20
3	21	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Honda	21	+4.963	6	16
4	33	Enea Bastianini	Honda	21	+5.818	5	13
5	7	Adam Norrodin	Honda	21	+9.112	4	11
6	72	Alonso López	Honda	21	+13.349	21	10
7	48	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Honda	21	+13.925	15	9
8	23	Niccolò Antonelli	Honda	21	+14.363	7	8
9	19	Gabriel Rodrigo	KTM	21	+16.573	3	7
10	14	Tony Arbolino	Honda	21	+24.299	1	6
11	88	Jorge Martín	Honda	21	+25.373	9	5
12	42	Marcos Ramírez	KTM	21	+26.060	26	4
13	16	Andrea Migno	KTM	21	+26.376	10	3
14	84	Jakub Kornfeil	KTM	21	+26.488	18	2
15	11	Livio Loi	KTM	21	+26.537	16	1
16	71	Ayumu Sasaki	Honda	21	+29.252	13
17	17	John McPhee	KTM	21	+32.937	22
18	41	Nakarin Atiratphuvapat	Honda	21	+33.892	23
19	27	Kaito Toba	Honda	21	+37.665	24
20	22	Kazuki Masaki	KTM	21	+38.202	17
21	24	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda	21	+1:02.305	19
22	40	Darryn Binder	KTM	21	+1:17.384	25
23	65	Philipp Öttl	KTM	21	+1:36.986	20
24	76	Makar Yurchenko	KTM	20	+1 lap	28
Ret	5	Jaume Masiá	KTM	19	Accident	11
Ret	10	Dennis Foggia	KTM	18	Accident	14
Ret	75	Albert Arenas	KTM	17	Accident	12
Ret	8	Nicolò Bulega	KTM	16	Handling	27
OFFICIAL MOTO3 REPORT

Championship standings after the race

MotoGP

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Cal Crutchlow	38
2	Andrea Dovizioso	35
3	Johann Zarco	28
4	Maverick Viñales	21
5	Marc Márquez	20
6	Jack Miller	19
7	Danilo Petrucci	17
8	Valentino Rossi	16
9	Álex Rins	16
10	Andrea Iannone	15

Moto2

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Mattia Pasini	38
2	Lorenzo Baldassarri	33
3	Francesco Bagnaia	32
4	Xavi Vierge	28
5	Miguel Oliveira	27
6	Álex Márquez	27
7	Marcel Schrötter	15
8	Remy Gardner	14
9	Joan Mir	14
10	Brad Binder	10

Moto3

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Arón Canet	40
2	Jorge Martín	30
3	Marco Bezzecchi	27
4	Fabio Di Giannantonio	26
5	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	25
6	Niccolò Antonelli	21
7	Gabriel Rodrigo	18
8	Adam Norrodin	16
9	Enea Bastianini	13
10	Alonso López	10