MotoGP Americas GP: Bagnaia dominates sprint as Quartararo crashes

Taking the inaugural sprint victory in Portugal last month, Bagnaia had to fend off a hard-charging Alex Rins on the LCR Honda on the opening lap to hold onto his pole position.

Once he’d successfully retaken the lead from Rins at Turn 12 on the first lap, Bagnaia steadily built up an unassailable advantage to take the chequered flag 2.545 seconds clear of Rins.

Behind, a crash for 2021 world champion Quartararo has further hindered his title aspirations as he overrode his Yamaha fighting for the top five.

Second for Rins marked his first podium of any kind as a Honda rider, while an unwell Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati salvaged third after capitalising on a late error for Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Rins got the holeshot into Turn 1 off the line at the start of the 10-lap sprint contest, but allowed Bagnaia back through when he ran into the opening corner deep.

Espargaro leaped up to third as team-mate Maverick Vinales dropped to 18th, while Quartararo put his Yamaha fourth from eighth on the grid.

Rins made a bold move for the lead on the inside of Bagnaia at the Turn 7 left-hander, though could do nothing to stop the Ducati powering past into Turn 12 moments later.

Alex Rins, Team LCR Honda

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia didn’t immediately escape, but was thrown a brief bit of breathing space when Rins ran wide as he outbraked himself at the Turn 12 hairpin on lap two.

This released Espargaro into second, while Quartararo dropped into the clutches of Martin as he failed to capitalise on Rins’ error – the pair making slight contact at Turn 13 as the LCR Honda rider tried to recover from his mistake.

Bagnaia led Espargaro by just under six tenths as he crossed the line to start the third lap, extending this to over seven tenths two tours later.

Martin eased past Quartararo on lap three for fourth, before the Frenchman ran off trying to keep the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez at bay on the fourth lap.

Quartararo’s race would last just a handful of corners more as he crashed under braking for Turn 1 at the start of lap five.

As Bagnaia swelled his lead to over a second, Rins had regrouped from his earlier mistake to try to retake second from Espargaro on lap six.

Rins was unable to stop his Honda to get to the apex for Turn 11 and allowed Espargaro to maintain second, but was succumb on lap seven at Turn 7.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Espargaro would lose another sport when he ran wide at Turn 12 moments later, the Aprilia rider appearing to be sucked into the error by Rins making a similar mistake.

Rins could do nothing to chase down Bagnaia, who registered his second sprint win of the season, while Martin fended off a last-lap penultimate corner lunge from Espargaro to keep third.

Brad Binder completed the top five on his KTM from Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini, the VR46 pair suffering terrible first laps and forcing themselves into recovery rides.

Bezzecchi holds a one-point lead in the championship over Bagnaia after the sprint.

RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira and KTM’s Jack Miller took the final sprint points, with Vinales 10th at the chequered flag ahead of Johann Zarco and Honda’s Joan Mir.

Alex Marquez crashed out of lap seven while running in fifth, while Quartararo re-joined to finish 19th.

Enea Bastianini’s Ducati stand-in Michele Pirro joined Marquez as an early retirement after a tumble on lap five.

Full MotoGP Americas GP Sprint results:

Cla	Rider		Bike	Gap	Interval
1	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati
2	Alex Rins		Honda	2.545	2.545
3	Jorge Martin		Ducati	4.706	2.161
4	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	5.052	0.346
5	Brad Binder		KTM	8.175	3.123
6	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	8.877	0.702
7	Luca Marini		Ducati	9.453	0.576
8	Miguel Oliveira		Aprilia	10.768	1.315
9	Jack Miller		KTM	12.448	1.680
10	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	12.739	0.291
11	Johann Zarco		Ducati	14.251	1.512
12	Joan Mir		Honda	14.988	0.737
13	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	15.592	0.604
14	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	16.534	0.942
15	Raúl Fernández		Aprilia	19.290	2.756
16	Augusto Fernandez		KTM	23.128	3.838
17	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	25.626	2.498
18	Stefan Bradl		Honda	25.787	0.161
19	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	27.169	1.382
20	Jonas Folger		KTM	46.973	19.804
	Alex Marquez		Ducati
	Michele Pirro		Ducati
View full results