Marc Marquez came out on top after Lap 1 tussle in another MotoGP sprint win in Americas GP ahead of Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia.
It was sunny to start the MotoGP sprint in Americas GP at the Circuit of the Americas. Straightway, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia led briefly from sixth at Turn 1 but teammate Marc Marquez cleared him to retake the lead. The two continued on to fight throughout the lap for the lead.
Bagnaia took the lead again, but Marquez had it back. Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez stayed on their tail as well and made his mark on Lap 2 when M Marquez made a mistake to allow Bagnaia through. But A Marquez did the same on the outside going into the final corner.
M Marquez recovered quickly from the near crash to retake the lead on the main straight as A Marquez slotted in second to stretch out a gap to Bagnaia in third, who had Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo to fend off. The Frenchman made up seven places from start to get himself in the Top 5.
A mistake from KTM’s Pedro Acosta allowed Quartararo to be fourth. The Spaniard hung to fifth for a while ahead of the battling VR46 Ducati pair of Franco Morbidelli and Fabio di Giannantonio, where the latter did not have a great run in the first few laps to drop out after starting second.
Honda’s Joan Mir was eighth from Tech 3 KTM’s Maverick Vinales in the points, with Honda’s Luca Marini on the tail in the fight for points. As things started to settle at the front, Quartararo made a mistake to lose fourth to Morbidelli and a couple of laps later, he lost fifth to di Giannantonio.
Mir and Acosta continued their tussle which featured Marini, Vinales and KTM’s Brad Binder in the fight for the fag end of the points. Mir had the upperhand until his crash which forced him to retire. Acosta, meanwhile, tried to fend off teammate Binder along with Marini and Vinales.
It was Acosta who triumphed to be seventh from Marini, who cleared Binder for eighth. After Vinales retired, Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi slotted in the tail of points places. The Italian managed to clear Binder but went wide to allow the KTM rider through to ninth, with Trackhouse Aprilia’s Ai Ogura up to 10th.
Just ahead of this battle, di Giannantonio barged his way through his teammate Morbidelli for fourth, which allowed Quartararo to take on Morbidelli for fifth. The two made minor contact but the VR46 rider eventually got through the Yamaha rider in the final turn to retake fifth.
At the front, M Marquez eased off to continue his winning run with MotoGP sprint victory in Americas GP ahead of A Marquez in another 1-2 for the brothers. Bagnaia had to be content with third from di Giannantonio, Morbidelli, Quartararo, Acosta and Mir in the Top 8 places.
A late push from Ogura got him in points in ninth as he fended off Bezzecchi and Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer, as Binder dropped to 12th on the final lap.
Result: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1906084308538060841
