Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez took full advantage of Maverick Vinales’ crash at the Austin MotoGP round, bagging 25 points with an ‘important’ win to bring himself back into the title hunt.

Marquez had been languishing in eighth place with just 13 points from the opening two races but he bounced back to victory after going with the hardest-available front tyre option.

“It’s an important victory and an important race because after Argentina it was important to come back in the best way, with a victory. It was a difficult race because the temperature was higher than yesterday and before the race I said to my chief mechanic, ‘I want to go with the hard front’,” said Marquez, speaking at the track.

“In the end there was no way to use with the medium because I know that I push a lot with the front tyre and at the beginning of the race I was trying to take care, trying to understand where was the limit of this tyre. I didn’t try a lot on Friday and I was behind Dani, trying to manage the race.

“Then when I saw that he was suffering a little bit and also Valentino, I said it was time to attack. It was the perfect race for me, really consistent, under control and I’m really happy to be back again in the championship.”