Dream Saturday for Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) in Austin! The Spaniard took pole position and then victory during the sprint of the United States Grand Prix, on the Circuit of the Americas.
Starting in the lead, Maverick Vinales went it alone throughout the race. He first held off his compatriot Marc Marquez (Ducati-Gresini) during the first part, before escaping irretrievably to claim his second sprint success, three weeks after the first in Portugal. “I’m dreaming, my level was incredible…congratulations to my whole team”, Vinales simply reacted. This Sunday he will be the favorite for the race where he could become the first rider in the MotoGP era to win a Grand Prix with three different manufacturers after his victories with Suzuki and Yamaha.
For his part, Marquez, author of a good start which allowed him to overtake the Spanish prodigy Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3), then defended his position dearly and managed to retain his second place. “It was a little harder than I imagined. I was very strong in the first laps and then I started to feel worse. Then it got better and I was able to react. I’m going to look at where I can be faster for tomorrow (Sunday).”explained the Catalan.
Martin does the right thing
World vice-champion Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac), only sixth in qualifying after two falls, completes a podium identical to that of the sprint in Portimao at the end of March. “I had some problems in the middle of the race but in the end the podium isn’t bad. I hope to have an even better race tomorrow (Sunday)”did he declare.
The Spaniard did a good job by increasing his lead at the top of the championship. He is now 24 lengths ahead of the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati), sixth, and 25 ahead of the South African Brad Binder (KTM), in great difficulty on Saturday with a 17th place in qualifying and 12th in the sprint. .
Note that the French had a difficult day on the Texan track. Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), who started in 16th position, took 15th place, while Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR), 19th on the grid, fell on the 5th lap.
