After claiming pole position earlier in the day, Pecco Bagnaia has taken a truly dominant win for the Americas Grand Prix sprint race in Texas. Just behind him was Alex Rins in 2nd and Jorge Martin who held on to 3rd despite a tough fight with Aleix Espargaro in 4th.
Pecco Bagnaia gave a faultless performance at the Circuit of the Americas to win the Americas GP sprint race. Having started on pole, he was able to hold off an early attack from Alex Rins at the start and quickly pulled out a large lead to win very comfortably. He also smashed the race lap record at the halfway point of the race.
As the lights went out, the race started surprisingly cleanly and everyone completed the first lap safely. The winners off the line were Jorge Martin, who flew from 12th up to 5th, and Miguel Oliveira, leaping from 15th up to 9th. Others faced more of a struggle with the likes of Luca Marini going wide and dropping from 3rd down to 13th and Maverick Vinales struggling at the start and falling back from 8th to 17th.
On the second lap, Rins went wide at turn 12 and gets shuffled back to 3rd. This dropping in right in to a battle with Fabio Quartararo who was trying desperate moves to try and get something out of his Yamaha. As the pair fought, Quartararo clatters in to the side of Rins, leaving rubber marks on his leather.
As the riders settled in to the race, and Bagnaia was enjoy some clear air, Quartararo was still fighting against his Yamaha at every corner. It eventually ended in tears as he went down at turn 1 of lap 5. He was able to rejoin the race and eventually ended the day in 19th.
On lap 7, Rins makes an aggressive move on Aleix Espargaro to steal 2nd from him. However, a few corners later, he goes wide and takes Espargaro with him. Whilst Rins holds on to 2nd, this error gifts 3rd place to Jorge Martin and shuffles Espargaro back down to 4th.
On the same lap, at turn 12, Alex Marquez goes down on the slipper track surface. This promotes Bezzecchi to 6th and allows him to keep the lead of the championship for another day.
In the final laps of the race, Espargaro is trying everything he can to get past Martin and in to 3rd but he simply can’t find a way through.
Lights will go out for the feature race in less than 24 hours time so make sure you follow Crew On Two for all the action.
Top Ten:
| 1 | Pecco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Alex Rins | LCR Honda |
| 3 | Jorge Martin | Prima Pramac |
| 4 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia |
| 5 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM |
| 6 | Marco Bezzecchi | VR46 Racing |
| 7 | Luca Marini | VR46 Racing |
| 8 | Miguel Oliveira | CryptoDATA RNF |
| 9 | Jack Miller | Red Bull KTM |
| 10 | Maverick Vinales | Aprilia |
Championship Standings:
| 1 | Marco Bezzecchi | 54 points |
| 2 | Pecco Bagnaia | 53 points |
| 3 | Johann Zarco | 35 points |
| 4 | Alex Marquez | 33 points |
Feature Image Credit: MotoGP