Xavi Vierge suffers cruel luck as his bike stops on the warm-up lap but Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS team-mate Alex Marquez claims a brilliant first podium of the year.

• After competing in an excellent seven-rider fight at the front, Alex Márquez took the chequered flag in an excellent 3rd place, 1.8s behind race winner Lorenzo Baldassarri. 
• Pole sitter Xavi Vierge was forced to retire on the warm-up lap due to a technical issue.

Alex Márquez: 3rd, + 1.817s

• Márquez started well from fourth on the grid, climbing into the top three on the first lap. 
• After passing Marcel Schrotter for 2nd on lap eight, he enjoyed a brief spell in the lead when fighting with Remy Gardner. 
• Despite having the speed in the closing laps, Márquez was unable to stop Baldassarri escaping in the final laps and instead chose to score 16 valuable points. He is now fourth in the World Championship. 

“We knew it was important to be smooth in the beginning to try to be fast in the end”

“I am very happy. It was a difficult weekend but solid. We did a really good job. In FP2 I was struggling so much but we made a change and then straight away in FP3 I was going so well. A good weekend, but I still have some things to learn, especially when it comes to riding style and finding the limits of the bike. But anyway we did a good job all race. It was nice to be fighting with Remy Gardner during the race. It was good racing and everyone enjoyed it today. We knew it was important to be smooth in the beginning to try to be fast in the end. But when Baldassarri made that push in the closing laps I wasn’t in the right position to go with him. I’ll study that for the future. Today he was the most intelligent one and I need to pay a little more attention in Texas and to learn from this experience.”

Xavi Vierge: DNS

• Vierge had claimed his second career pole position on Saturday, breaking the outright Moto2 circuit record by 0.083s
• The 21-year old showed strong pace in morning warm-up, posting a consistent twelve-lap run.
• An electrical fault caused Vierge’s bike to stop on the warm-up lap, which meant he couldn’t make the start.

“We’ve had such great potential in these first two races but we haven’t been able to demonstrate it”

“It’s a big pity because we were doing a really good job. It was a similar situation to Qatar, where we were really strong but had a little issue in the race. And now here. We did such a great job all weekend and we had the pace to fight for the victory. We started the warm-up lap and everything seemed OK. Then at turn seven it just stopped. I tried to restart but it didn’t help. My race ended there. It’s such a shame because we’ve had such great potential in these first two races but we haven’t been able to demonstrate it. Anyway, there are 17 races ahead. We’ll try again in Austin.”
 

Joan Olivé, Team Manager

“I’m feeling mixed emotions. I am sorry for Xavi, happy for Alex “

“I have to say I’m feeling mixed emotions. I’m really sorry for what happened to Xavi because he was starting the race from pole and we had big expectations. We had a problem with one of the cables on the bike and it’s not the fault of anyone. In any case he showed he has really big potential and we will try and do a great job with him in the coming racing. With Alex we knew after testing that he has good rhythm. He showed his experience here in this class. He can run in good positions. He fought well in a big group and he got this first podium for the team. I’m so happy for this.”

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