Marquez wins Austin MotoGP race

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Spaniard Marc Marquez wins at Austin, the second race in MotoGP's 2014 season.

AUSTIN - Marc Marquez extended his U.S. winning streak with a victory from the pole in the MotoGP motorcycle race Sunday as he and his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa dominated the international field.

'It's a great country for me,'' the Spaniard laughed, noting he has won all six races he has entered in the United States over his young career, including three 2013 victories and a pair of prior wins in the smaller-engined Moto2 series. 'I can't explain.''

But for a heart-stopping wobble on the final turn, Marquez, 21, made it look easy as he finished 4.12 seconds ahead of Pedrosa and far ahead of the rest of the pack in the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, which was run under heavy, threatening skies but remained dry.

Italian rider Andrea Dovizioso (cq) finished third nearly 21 seconds off the winning pace, giving Ducati its first podium finish since 2012 and a badly needed boost for a factory team that has struggled winless since 2010.

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It was a tough day for the Yamaha riders who had hoped to challenge the Repsol Honda team.

Jorge Lorenzo, the 2012 world champion, had his second disastrous start of the season. He was sent to the back of the field when he was assessed a penalty for jumping the start from the second row. He led the first lap but shook his head after leaping to the front, aware he had jumped ahead of the starting light and would be penalized.

'I was focused on the light and I see the light was still red,'' Pedrosa said after watching Lorenzo leap ahead of his front-row starting position. 'Immediately I saw he was shaking his head and saw he was wrong, and I just focused on Marc.''

Lorenzo, who crashed out on the first lap of the season-opening race last month in Qatar, worked his way back to finish 10 ^th.

His Movistar Yamaha teammate, Valentino Rossi, started sixth and advanced to fourth place before slowing his pace and finishing eighth, apparently suffering mechanical difficulty.

Marquez gave his crew a scare as he wobbled exiting the final corner on the 20-turn, 3.4 mile Circuit of the Americas track.

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'The race was too quiet,'' he laughed. 'I lose a little bit of concentration and make a small mistake ... It is more experience for the future.''

Dovizioso's strong third, after starting in 10 ^th place, was a relief for the Ducati team. He called it 'really fantastic'' and said the track, with combinations of fast straights and slow technical sections of turns, proved to be very demanding physically.

'I didn't have the energy to push, but I knew the other riders were struggling like me,'' Dovizioso said. 'To make a podium is really important.''

Factory Ducati teammate Cal Crutchlow, who started in seventh position, suffered a broken hand in a crash with nine laps to go. American Nicky Hayden on an Aspar Honda finished 11 ^th.

Pedrosa, once again overshadowed by his junior teammate, credited Marquez with setting a strong pace for him to follow. He was hardly pushed himself, with a 16 second gap separating him from the third-place Ducati.

'I really try my best to follow Marc and keep his pace, but he was just a little faster,'' Pedrosa said.

Texan Kevin Schwantz, a world champion in the 1980s and 1990s, said he was stunned by Lorenzo's mistake, which left the Hondas unchallenged.

'That's not anything we've ever seen from him before,'' he said.

The third race in MotoGP's 18-race series goes to Argentina in two weeks. Marquez also won the first race in Qatar. The series returns to the United States in August at Indianapolis.