World champion Marc Marquez of Spain won the Grand Prix of the Americas for the third straight year on Sunday to get his 2015 MotoGP campaign on track.

After a disappointing fifth-place finish in the season-opening race in Qatar, Marquez rebounded at the Texas track where he won for the first time in the elite MotoGP class.

A day after capturing pole position with dramatic late-session heroics, the 22-year-old Honda rider was in dominant form.

He finished more than 2.3 seconds ahead of Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso, with nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi third on a Yamaha.

Rossi, the nine-time world champion who opened the season with a win in Qatar, remained atop the standings with 41 points, followed by Dovizioso on 40 and Marquez on 36.

In a race delayed as organisers dealt with water spilled on the track, Dovizioso seized the initiative at the start, powering to the first-turn lead ahead of Rossi and Marquez.

The leaders were tightly bunched when Marquez made his move heading into the back straight on lap four.

His move past Dovizioso was quickly answered by the Ducati rider, but Marquez wouldn’t be denied and at the end of the straight he again manoeuvred past to take the lead for good.

From there, Marquez was never threatened, maintaining his late lead at more than three seconds as Rossi and Dovizioso duelled for second behind him.

Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo left it late, overtaking the Ducati of Andrea Iannone with only three laps remaining to snatch fourth place from the Italian, with Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith rounding out the top six.

In the Moto2 race, Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes of Britain shook off the effects of big crashes in practice and qualifying to win his first race at the level.

Lowes overtook Ajo Motorsport’s Johann Zarco to lead with six laps to go. As Zarco and Xavier Simeon tried to reel him back in, they made contact, with the latter crashing.

Zarco recovered to finish second ahead of rookie Alex Rins on the Paginas Amarillas HP40 Kalex.

British Honda rider Danny Kent won the Moto3 race, his first win of 2015 and the third of his career.

Kent, 21, started from pole and held off 15-year-old French sensation Fabio Quartararo, who was making just his second start at this level. Spain’s Efren Vazquez was third.