Francesco Bagnaia cruised to a third win of the 2023 MotoGP term in dominant style in the sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas, while Fabio Quartararo crashed out.
Bagnaia didn’t have the easiest of starts after being beaten off the line by LCR Honda’s Alex Rins, though the Spaniard ran wide at Turn 1 and dropped back behind the Ducati racer.
Unmoved by his minor error, Rins swiftly dived back through into the lead with a bold move at Turn 7, though the power of Bagnaia’s Ducati ultimately proved impossible to resist as the reigning MotoGP world champion regained the leadership.
The crucial moment that solidified Bagnaia’s march to victory was a mistake from Rins as he ran off at Turn 12 on the following tour, dropping him behind Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and affording the Italian an advantage he would never relinquish.
Bagnaia ultimately took the chequered flag a comfortable 2.8 seconds clear of Rins, who performed admirably on his tricky Honda to eventually get the better of Espargaro – courtesy of another late dive at Turn 7 in the closing stages – to secure his debut premier class rostrum astride his new RC213-V.
The tussle for the final spot on the podium came down to Espargaro and Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, the latter staging a blazing comeback from 12th on the grid following a horror qualifying session to reach third in the closing laps after Espargaro ran wide at Turn 12.
The Aprilia man was keen to re-capture his rostrum place though and pushed Martin hard, Espargaro pushing a final do-or-die attack on Martin at the penultimate corner, though his attempt was futile and thus was forced to settle for fourth behind the 2018 Moto3 world champion.
Brad Binder enjoyed a solid ride to bring his KTM home in the top five from 11th on the grid, the South African getting the better of VR46 Ducati duo Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini for the spot.
Miguel Oliveira was able to snag a couple of points on his comeback ride for RNF Aprilia after scoring eighth, while the final point went the way of the other factory KTM entry of Jack Miller.
Maverick Vinales completed the top ten despite a shocking start that saw him drop all the way to 18th having gone from eighth, though his day still ended better than that of Quartararo who crashed out while running sixth early on.
A strong start from the Frenchman saw him climb up to fourth, though a failed attack on third-paced Rins put him under pressure from the charging Martin.
Having been passed by the Pramac man, he then fell victim to Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez by running wide at Turn 12 – with his competitive chances ended for good with a crash at Turn 1 just seconds later.
Marquez would also fail to score after dropping his Desmosedici at Turn 12 with only a couple of laps to go, while Ducati stand-in rider Michele Pirro also tasted the tarmac after going down at the opening bend.
Keyword: Bagnaia eases to COTA sprint success, Quartararo crashes