Aprilia MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales secured a commanding victory in the 10-lap sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas, leading from start to finish.
COTA specialist Marc Marquez and current championship leader Jorge Martin completed the top three, but Vinales was never seriously challenged after making a bold early breakaway.
After taking the lead at the start, Vinales pulled Marquez and rookie Pedro Acosta along with him, distancing themselves from the rest of the pack in the early stages. Vinales then made a decisive move on lap three, leaving Marquez behind.
This move secured Vinales’ victory, as Marquez focused on fending off Acosta and a charging Martin, who had caught up to their battle after overtaking Enea Bastianini’s Ducati. Marquez dropped two seconds behind the leader.
Acosta attempted to overtake Marquez, but the six-time champion quickly regained his position, leaving the rookie vulnerable to an aggressive move from Martin on the back straight.
Marquez, who struggled through the first sector and nearly crashed on the fifth lap, managed to maintain his pace and prevent Martin from getting close enough to attack.
There was a brief moment of hope for Marquez when Vinales made a mistake while braking at Turn 12, but Vinales quickly recovered and continued his dominant performance, finishing 2.3 seconds ahead of the rest.
Acosta settled for fourth place and narrowly avoided being overtaken by Vinales’ teammate Aleix Espargaro on the final lap, with only a tenth of a second separating them at the finish line.
Bastianini initially struggled for pace but found his rhythm in the second half of the race after dropping behind Jack Miller’s KTM. Bastianini made a successful overtaking maneuver on Miller at the final corner of the penultimate lap and secured seventh place by passing him at Turn 12 on the final lap.
Bagnaia, the reigning champion, had a difficult race. His Ducati hit the front tire on the start line, causing him to drop from fourth to tenth. Like Bastianini, Bagnaia struggled in the early stages but managed to overtake Franco Morbidelli and Raul Fernandez on the final lap to finish in eighth place.
Fernandez held on to ninth place, earning Trackhouse a point in their debut on home soil.
The race was eventful towards the back of the field, with three out of the four participating Hondas crashing – Takaaki Nakagami, Joan Mir, and Johann Zarco. However, none of them were in contention for points. The only remaining Honda, Luca Marini’s, finished nearly five seconds behind the second-to-last place.
Augusto Fernandez (Tech3 Gas Gas) also crashed out, while Fabio Di Giannantonio experienced an apparent engine failure on his 2023 Ducati, causing a massive plume of smoke on the opening lap.
Bastianini is currently the closest rival to Martin in the championship standings, but he trails by a comfortable margin of 24 points.