Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP

Marc Marquez’s perfect season rolls on.

 The Spaniard pulled away in the second half of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sunday, beating Jorge Lorenzo by 1.803 seconds to win for the second consecutive year on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and continue an incredible 2014 season.

 The 21-year-old has won all 10 races so far on the MotoGP World Championship schedule, an extended run of dominance not seen in the sport since Australia’s Mick Doohan’s won 10 in a row in 1997.

 “I cannot explain – every race I go to the weekend and I say, ‘OK, here maybe is the time to finish second or third. Here will be the time that I struggle,'” Marquez said. “But every race I feel so strong.”

 His afternoon at IMS began with a struggle as he fell from the pole position to fifth moments after the race began and needed 10 laps to work his way back to the front. But once there, the defending world champion held steady for the final 17 laps on his No. 93 Repsol Honda and became the first back-to-back champion at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP.

 “The start was not so good, and in the beginning I had some moments,” Marquez said. “Then when I saw the tire (come in), Jorge also attacked and tried to push in the front. I said, ‘OK, now is the time I overtake them’ and I started to push.”

 Marquez won for the fourth consecutive year at IMS, having also won in Moto2 in 2011 and 2012. In winning on Sunday, he also secured the 500th Grand Prix win for Spain. No. 499 came from Efren Vazquez, who started Sunday’s racing with a win in Moto3 after a fierce battle among five riders in the closing laps.

 Italy’s Romano Fenati led coming into the front straightaway but Vazquez ran him down in his Honda for a 0.065-second margin at the Yard of Bricks and his first Moto3 victory.

 “It was a really hard race for us and, I think, for every rider,” Vazquez. “I will take it – the first victory.”

 Moto2 featured a dominant wire-to-wire performance by Mika Kallio of Finland, who led all 16 laps in a shortened race following an early red flag. His margin at the finish was 1.380 seconds over Maverick Vinales of Spain.

 In the AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series, Steve Rapp won in a five-bike shootout in the closing laps.

SOURCE: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez of Spain posted a lap of 1 minute, 31.619 seconds on Saturday on his Repsol Honda to win the pole for Sunday’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Marquez, the winner from the pole at last year’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP, has now won eight pole positions this season and 17 in his MotoGP career. A perfect nine-for-nine in MotoGP races this season, Marquez will look to tie Australian legend Mick Doohan’s modern-era record of 10 consecutive wins. He will also be chasing his fourth win at IMS to go along with his Moto2 victories in 2011 and 2012 and his MotoGP win last year.

The 27-lap MotoGP race starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“We found a really good setup with the new layout and corners,” Marquez said. “We changed a little bit from last year because it’s less stop and go, and you need to keep more corner speed. So we tried to do that. And I feel good, especially for the race. I have a good rhythm. I feel comfortable. In the qualifying and practice, I’m happy for the pole because after holidays, again to get the confidence, it’s important. Tomorrow I hope for a normal race, dry race, and try to fight for the victory.”

A top-5 finisher in five of his six starts at Indianapolis, Andrea Dovizioso of Italy posted the second-fastest qualifying time of 1:31.844 on his Ducati and will start on the grid next to Marquez. This is Dovizioso’s best qualifying effort of the season. He started third in France in his only other front-row start this season.

Rounding out the front row will be two-time MotoGP World Champion and 2009 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Jorge Lorenzo of Spain on his Movistar Yamaha, who turned a best lap of 1:31.869. With his performance Lorenzo continues his streak of starting on the front row in each of the seven years of this event.

Other notables in qualifying today include Valentino Rossi of Italy, the six-time MotoGP World Champion and winner of the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP in 2008, who posted a lap of 1:32.160 on his Yamaha to land in the middle of Row 2. Dani Pedrosa of Spain, last year’s runner-up and winner in 2010 and 2012, will start on his Honda from the middle of Row 3 after posting a time of 1:32.331.

During an afternoon practice session, Pedrosa set the record trap speed for a motorcycle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway of 216.9 mph (349.0 km/h), topping the previous standard of 214.5 mph (345.2 km/h) set during today’s morning practice session by Dovizioso.

American Colin Edwards, who will retire from racing at the end of this season, will start on the outside of Row 5 after turning a lap of 1:33.625 on his Forward Yamaha.

Mika Kallio of Finland won the pole for the Moto2 race on his Kalex bike with his time of 1:36.883. The 25-lap Moto2 race will start on Sunday at 12:20 p.m.

Current points leader Jack Miller of Australia, who crashed this morning during a practice session, won his sixth Moto3 pole of the season with a lap of 1:40.727. The 23-lap Moto3 race will begin at 11 a.m.

The winner of the first of two AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series races this weekend at IMS was pole-sitter Jeremy McWilliams of Northern Ireland, who grabbed the lead for good on Lap 8 of 10 laps.

McWilliams’ winning margin over runner-up Ben Carlson of West Bend, Wis., was 0 .083 of a second, with Kyle Wyman of Macedon, N.Y., finishing third. McWilliams also won the first of two AMA Vance & Hines Harley Davidson races during last year’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP weekend.

The second AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series race of the weekend will start Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Public gates open tomorrow at 7 a.m. On-track action begins with a Moto3 warm-up at 8:40 a.m., with the Moto2 warm-up at 9:10 a.m., followed by the MotoGP warm-up at 9:40 a.m.

SOURCE: Indianapolis Motor Speedway