Maverick Vinales wins the Americas MotoGP sprint, Francesco Bagnaia eighth

Maverick Vinal🌱es makes it back-to-back MotoGP s🎉print wins after leading every lap at COTA.

Maverick Vinales, MotoGP, Grand Prix of the Americas, 12 April
Maverick Vinales, MotoGP, Grand Prix of the Americas, 12 April

Mak💯ing the perfect stꦅart, Maverick Vinales led from Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta.

🌸However, it was a dreadful start for the reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia who dropped 🐈from fourth to tenth.

Out of the race before completing lap one, Fabio Di Giannantonio had to retire after his Ducati c🎃aught fire following contact with Alex Marquez at the start.

At t🐷he front, Vinales was continuing to lead as Acosta began lining up a move on Marquez for second.

Also out of🦄 the sprint was Augusto Fernandez as the GASGAS Tech 3 KTM rider crashed on lap one.

Lap three was a neck breaker for the chasing pack as Vinales went ꦿseven tenths quicker than Marquez and Acosta.

Vinales then continued to open up his lead on lap four as Jorge Martin, who overtook Enea Bastianini for P4, began closing in on his fellow Spanish pa🌳ir ahead.

On lpa five Marquez made a mistake in sector one which ga꧃ve Vinales another huge amount of time.

Pressure mounted on Marquez from behind while the battle for fifth saw Aleix Espargaro momentarily come through on Ba꧑stianini, before the Ducati rider regained the po꧂sition.

After a failed overtake on Marquez, Acosta was bumped🉐 down to third by Martin who pushed the rookie wide in the process.

Vinales, who was seℱemingly in a league of his own, then lost a considerable amount of time to Marquez who was now the fastest rider on circuit [lap six]. But Vinales steadied the ship on lap eight and stopped losing time to Marquez.

Bagnaia fin♚ally moved into the points with🍎 a move on Franco Morbidelli for ninth, but the factory Ducati rider struggled to make further progress.

Bagnaia secured another spot before the checkered flag dropped, thanks to a move💯 on Raul Fernandez at turn ten. 

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