Austin MotoGP: Alex Rins beats Valentino Rossi after Marc Marquez crash – MotoGP

MotoGP


Suzuki rider Alex Rins beat Valentino Rossi to score his first MotoGP win, after Marc Marquez’s unbeaten Austin run ended with a crash while holding a healthy lead.

Honda rider Marquez converted pole into an early lead, and looked well on course for a seventh consecutive win at the Circuit of the Americas as he stretched his advantage in the early laps.

He had eased almost four seconds clear of Rossi’s Yamaha in second when he suffered a low-side crash at the Turn 12 left-hander on lap nine of 20, ending his race.

Marquez’s demise handed Rossi a slim lead over the Rins, but the MotoGP legend – who has not won since Assen in June 2017 – was powerless to shake off the Suzuki rider.

Rins managed to slip past on lap 17 at the Turn 7 downhill left-hander to take the lead.

Rossi tried to retaliate at the tight corner at the end of the back straight, but ran wide, and from then on he was never able to get close enough to mount another assault on Rins.

The 23-year-old Spaniard eventually crossed the line with just 0.462s in hand to score Suzuki’s first premier class win since Maverick Vinales’ 2016 triumph at Silverstone.

Eight seconds behind the lead pair, Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller nursed fading soft tyres to claim third – marking his first podium finish since his 2016 Dutch TT win.

Andrea Dovizioso recovered to sixth on the opening lap from his lowly 13th grid slot, and managed to take fourth behind Miller and claim the lead of the championship in the process.

Franco Morbidelli took his first top-five finish for Petronas Yamaha, ahead of Danilo Petrucci on the second of the works Ducatis, team-mate Fabio Quartararo and KTM rider Pol Espargaro.

Francesco Bagnaia and Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top 10.

A miserable day for Honda was compounded by an early crash at Cal Crutchlow at Turn 11, while he was running third behind Rossi, and a mechanical failure for Jorge Lorenzo.

Vinales suffered another race to forget, jumping the start and having to serve a ride-through penalty before recovering to 11th, ahead of Andrea Iannone and Johann Zarco.

Rins’ Suzuki team-mate Joan Mir also picked up a penalty for the same infraction as Vinales and ended up out of the points in 17th place.

Aleix Espargaro crashed his Aprilia on the second lap, making him the only non-Honda retirement in the race.

Race result

Pos Rider Team Bike Laps Gap
1 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 20 41m45.499s
2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 20 0.462s
3 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 20 8.454s
4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 20 9.420s
5 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 20 18.021s
6 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Ducati 20 21.476s
7 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 20 26.111s
8 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 20 29.743s
9 Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati Ducati 20 30.608s
10 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 20 31.011s
11 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 20 34.077s
12 Andrea Iannone Aprilia Aprilia 20 34.779s
13 Johann Zarco KTM KTM 20 42.458s
14 Miguel Oliveira Tech3 KTM KTM 20 44.272s
15 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 20 44.623s
16 Karel Abraham Avintia Ducati Ducati 20 44.740s
17 Joan Mir Suzuki Suzuki 20 48.063s
18 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 KTM KTM 20 1m07.683s
Jorge Lorenzo Honda Honda 10 Retirement
Marc Marquez Honda Honda 8 Retirement
Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 5 Retirement
Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 5 Retirement

Riders’ standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Andrea Dovizioso 54
2 Valentino Rossi 51
3 Alex Rins 49
4 Marc Marquez 45
5 Danilo Petrucci 30
6 Jack Miller 29
7 Takaaki Nakagami 22
8 Cal Crutchlow 19
9 Pol Espargaro 18
10 Fabio Quartararo 17
11 Franco Morbidelli 16
12 Maverick Vinales 14
13 Aleix Espargaro 13
14 Francesco Bagnaia 9
15 Joan Mir 8
16 Miguel Oliveira 7
17 Jorge Lorenzo 7
18 Andrea Iannone 6
19 Johann Zarco 5
20 Tito Rabat 1
21 Hafizh Syahrin 0
22 Karel Abraham 0



Source link

Products You May Like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *