Without the sheriff of Austin on the track -Marc Márquez, 7-time winner at COTA, watched the race again from the sofa at home with his unrecovered right thumb-, the leadership of the GP of the Americas took over, oh surprise, a supporting actor like Ãlex Rins and a motorcycle that seemed incapable like Honda. The Barcelona rider, in his third GP with the LCR Honda satellite, brought joy back with an indisputable victory to the winged brand, which had not won for a year and a half (since Misano, in October 2021).
Rins’ victory with a satellite Honda (something that had not happened since 2018 with Crutchlow) raised a question mark in the Texas sky: what could Marc Márquez have done in the Sprint on Saturday and in the long race, on his fetish circuit? , without the punishment of the double long-lap, provisionally suspended by the MotoGP Court of Appeal? There will remain the doubt.
What there was none of was the good performance of the Honda on a track that seemed fertile ground at the devilish speed of the Ducati de Bagnaia, as it demonstrated in the Sprint.
Starting from Bagnaia pole, with Rins and Marini at his side, the Italian kept his first position at the start, closing the first angle uphill, with the Barcelonan in his wake. It was a preview of the fight, which was already left without the contest of two possible candidates, Jorge MartÃn and Àlex Márquez, to the ground in turn 3. The man from Madrid lost control of his Ducati and took the Catalan ahead. Two less rivals for Pecco. And three less, with the next fall of Aleix Espargaró at turn 12. On the first lap, three offside.
Despite the good pace he was setting in the race, Bagnaia was unable to distance himself from a solid Rins who had several best laps in the race, and slightly distanced a boisterous Miller from 10th on the grid to third.
Curiously, in the first quarter of the race, to the delight of the organization, four different manufacturers led the race (Ducati, Honda, KTM and Yamaha), breaking the overwhelming hegemony of the Italian firm.
A variety that Miller threw to the ground with his fall to the gravel on lap 7, leaving Quartararo in podium position, and in the next lap, Bagnaia was also a victim of gravity and the pressure that Rins subjected him to, that led him to make an unexpected mistake. He lost traction on the rear wheel by entering turn 3 too wide. For the second race in a row, the champion crashed in the feature race and was left with no round weekend, and no lead, which would remain in the hands of Bezzecchi if he stood up.
The champion’s stumble left Rins in the lead with 2 seconds ahead of Quartararo, who had not been on a podium since Malaysia 2022, four races ago.
Halfway through the race (12 of the 20 laps), staying on the bike had become an exercise in survival: up to 8 of the 22 riders had crashed, only 14 remained on the track. Nakagami and Mir followed the path of Miller and Bagnaia.
The chase to Rins changed its name from hunter with 8 laps to go. Luca Marini got tired of Quartararo’s insufficient pace, seeing that the Honda slipped away (2.2s away), and took over from the Frenchman on Yamaha. However, Rins hit the gas and opened up a little more gap, at 2.5s. The advantage took her to 3.1 seconds in the last lap, in which he no longer threatened his victory, the sixth in the premier class. And be careful, Rins is the driver who has won the most races in the last six: three (in Australia and Valencia last year, and the one in Austin).
