Maverick Vinales wins the Grand Prix of the Americas, his first success since 2021

One thousand one hundred and thirteen days. This is the lapse of time that separated Maverick Vinales’ ninth and tenth victories in MotoGP, between Losail 2021 and Austin 2024. This long drought therefore ended on Sunday, in the Texan heat. The Aprilia rider, who had already won with Suzuki and Yamaha, achieved the feat of winning a Grand Prix with a third manufacturer, a first in the history of MotoGP, the day after a convincing victory during the race sprint.

But, unlike the day before, this time the Spaniard did not get a great start to take control from the first lap and take off, without ever being worried by his competitors. No, this time, Vinales had to really work hard, because he missed his start, and was forced to go wide in the first corner after being hit by Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), himself hit by Jorge Martin (Ducati Pramac). When he returned to the track, he was only 11th. And slowly, but surely, helped, it must be admitted, by his medium rear tire, he climbed back into the peloton, up to the first places.

The French far from the best

In front of him, the fight was beautiful, very beautiful. For many laps, it concerned Pedro Acosta (KTM GasGas), who made a magnificent start, Jorge Martin (Ducati Pramac), Marc Marquez (Ducati Gresini) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati). The five men never stopped pushing and surpassing each other, sometimes taking reckless risks. Fortunately, everything ended well, except for Marquez, who fell on the 11th lap when he had just overtaken Acosta to finally take control.

On the same lap, Vinales passed Martin for second place. Two loops later, the Aprilia rider took the lead, and flew towards a historic feat. On the line, he was ahead of the Spanish rookie and Enea Bastianini (Ducati), discreet for a large part of the race, but who climbed onto the podium, ahead of Martin and Bagnaia.

The French witnessed this magnificent spectacle from afar. Starting 16th and 19th, Fabio Quartararo and Johann Zarco could not hope for much from these 20 laps of the Austin circuit anyway, apart from perhaps scoring a few points. This is what the Yamaha rider managed to do with his 12th place. The LCR Honda driver retired on the 7th lap.