America MotoGP: Alex Rins wins at COTA in third race for Honda, but Francesco Bagnaia throws it away again!
As the lights went 🅠out, Francesco Bagnaia made a brilliant start as he held off Alex Rins into turn one.
But while it was a great start for the factory Ducati team, drama took place further back as Jorge Martin and Alex Marquez clashed which re💙sulted in crashes for both riders.
Marquez,ꩵ who cr🅠ashed out of the Sprint race on his own, was collected by Martin who went down directly in front of him.
As Bagnaia continued to lead de🍸spite pressure from Rins, another big name fell o⭕n the opening lap as Aleix Espargaro lost the front-end of his Aprilia at turn 12.
Wild the chaos in front of him helped, Jack Miller was a very big movꦆer after leaping up the order to position ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhimself in third.
On lap three, Miller’s charge continued as he set the fast💫est lap of the race and began closing in on Rins and Bagnaia.
As Rins closed in on Bagnaia, Miller was continuing to approach the top two riders although no rid💟er was in position to make an overtake.
In the battle fo♛r the final positions in the top ten, Maverick Vinales was showing good pace and able to make overtakes on Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira
Now struggling to match the front two, Miller ultimatel🔯y pushed too hard as he crashed out of the Gran﷽d Prix on lap 7.
Finally✤ starting to edge away from Rins, just like he did in the Sprint race, Bagnaia made yet another huge🍨 error.
The world ch🐻ampion, for the second time in two races, crashed out of the Grand Prix as Rins took over the lead. It was a turn 2 fall for the Ducati star.
Facing intense pressure from Luca Marini for second, Quartararo was holding off the Ducati rider while matching the pace of Rin💛s.
Three c꧙rashes then took place in short order as Joan Mir kicked th𒁏ings off before Brad Binder and Takaaki Nakagami joined him.
Like Bagnaia did in the Sprint, Marini showꦦed the immense speed of his Ducati as he finally blasted past Quartararo with eight laps remaining.
After losing five tenths to𝔉 Marini on the same lap that the Italian overtook Quartararo, the race leader responded in emphatic fashion to give Marini little hope of contending for the victory.
Marini continued to pull clear of Quartararo during the final few laps, but so was Ri𝕴ns as he controlled the gap en route to victory in ju🐬st his third race for Honda.
