AUSTIN — Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales won the Sprint Race of the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas to snatch his second straight sprint victory of the season ahead of Marc Marquez and MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin in an all-Spanish podium.
The victory was redemption for pole-sitter Vinales, who also won the sprint at the Portuguese Grand Prix in the previous round but crashed on the final lap of the race in Portimao due to a technical problem when he was running in second place.
“Can I just say I’m dreaming! I want to keep going. The level was amazing. We deserve it,” said Vinales according to Reuters.
Vinales, who became only the second rider to win back-to-back sprints in MotoGP, had the perfect start as he shot off the line to take the lead while Gresini Ducati’s Marquez moved up from third to second when he overtook GasGas Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta as soon as the lights went out.
The front-row trio peeled away from the rest of the pack but behind them Pramac Racing’s Martin, who crashed twice in qualifying, moved up to fourth in an attempt to reel them in.
As Vinales continued to increase his lead, Martin managed to elbow Acosta out of the way with five laps to go and set his sights on Marquez.
Marquez, who has won at the Circuit of the Americas seven times, did make a mistake when he nearly went wide but he managed to keep hold of second place for another sprint podium after Vinales took the chequered flag.
Martin ran out of laps to launch an attack but third place extended his championship lead to 24 points.
“We had two crashes (in qualifying) but I was able to make that second row,” Martin said.
“It was a tough race, I suffered some issues but we finished on the podium – that’s the most important thing.”
Acosta finished fourth followed by the second Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro. Ducati’s Enea Bastianini came sixth to move up to second in the championship standings.
Red Bull Jack Miller was seventh and defending champion Francesco Bagnaia could manage only an eighth-placed finish to sit 28 points behind Martin in the standings.
Having kept the lead off the line, Vinales pulled Marquez and rookie Pedro Acosta along and away from the chasing pack in the early going, before breaking away dramatically from Marquez on lap three.
It sealed his win, with Marquez busy fending off Acosta and a charging Martin – who had joined their battle after clearing the works Ducati of Enea Bastianini – and dropping two seconds back from the leader.
Acosta eventually attempted a lunge on Marquez, but the six-time champion cut back ahead of him and it left the rookie vulnerable to being picked off by Martin with an aggressive move under braking onto the back straight.
But Marquez – who looked to be struggling through the first-sector esses and nearly crashed there on the fifth lap – stabilised his relative pace from there, never allowing Martin to get close enough to attack.
He even briefly looked like he may give Vinales something to think about, especially when the Aprilia man made a mess of braking at Turn 12, but Vinales quickly gathered himself and continued to dominate, finishing 2.3s clear.
Acosta had to settle for fourth and came very close to being overhauled by Vinales’ team-mate Aleix Espargaro on the final lap, the pair separated by a tenth at the flag.
Bastianini looked to be struggling for pace in the early stages, but found his rhythm in the second half after dropping back behind Jack Miller.
He lunged at Miller at the final corner on the penultimate lap, but while Miller successfully countered that, he was powerless to stop Bastianini going through at Turn 12 on the final tour.
