MotoGP

Rins wins MotoGP crashfest for LCR Honda after Bagnaia falls

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
5 min read

LCR rider Alex Rins claimed victory at the Circuit of the Americas in only his third MotoGP grand prix start with a Honda, aided by Pecco Bagnaia crashing out of the lead.

It marked the first win for a Honda rider not named Marc Marquez since 2018, and also the first LCR win since then. Marquez – absent this weekend through injury – had recorded 24 wins in the time since.

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Reigning champion Bagnaia looked like he was about to make a decisive break away from Rins when he suddenly threw his Ducati down the road coming through Turn 2 – his second successive ultra-costly Sunday crash after he’d fallen out of second place at Termas de Rio Hondo.

Unlike in the sprint, Bagnaia had kept the lead into Turn 1 after starting from pole, and he then successfully fought off a Rins lunge at Turn 11.

From there on, they emerged as the absolute class of the field, streaking away a second clear of third place – that belonging to Jack Miller in the early going, the KTM man having moved into podium contention from 10th on the grid through a good start and a great line through Turn 1.

But, having passed Luca Marini to settle into third, Miller fell off on the seventh lap, leaving the leading duo over two seconds in the clear.

By that point, Rins had put up a surprisingly stern challenge against Bagnaia, keeping him within touching distance as the gap between them oscillated between around two and five tenths.

On lap eight, it briefly moved up to over six tenths – and just then, Bagnaia hit the deck.

All of a sudden, Rins’ win was in little doubt, as he set about managing a two-second gap to the rest of the pack.

Bagnaia’s crash had promoted Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo into second place, but Quartararo was already soaking up the pressure from Marini at that point and his M1 ultimately had no answer to the year-old Desmosedici on the back straight.

But, once ahead, Marini couldn’t make meaningful inroads on Rins’ lead either, settling for second – his maiden Sunday podium in the premier class, although Marini had already finished in the top three in the sprint back in Argentina.

Concluding a weekend in which he called for Yamaha to make a radical change beyond even the engine upgrade introduced this year, Quartararo bagged his first podium of the season.

The Aprilias of Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira, who had lined up 15th on the grid, completed the top five. Vinales had made another poor start like on Saturday, but it proved less ruinous this time.

Both Vinales and Oliveira had worked their way past VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi, but Bagnaia’s crash means Bezzecchi – who fought off Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco for sixth – leaves COTA an 11-point championship leader.

It was ultimately a quiet Termas follow-up for Yamaha’s under-pressure second rider Franco Morbidelli, but he did stay on to finish eighth. He was eight seconds off seventh place, while a further eight seconds behind him Gresini Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio defeated Tech3 Gas Gas rookie Augusto Fernandez for ninth.

Ducati’s Enea Bastianini injury replacement Michele Pirro was best of the stand-ins in 11th, while Jonas Folger – making his first MotoGP Sunday start since 2017 as stand-in for the injured Pol Espargaro at Tech3 Gas Gas – scored a 12th place.

Brad Binder was 13th for KTM, but only by virtue of having remounted his damaged bike, having been one of many to hit the deck.

Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin had kicked things off by tucking the front on the opening lap at Turn 3, taking down Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez in the process – the younger Marquez having already retired from the sprint due to a crash that came after he vomited in his helmet.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro fell a handful of corners after the Martin/Marquez shunt. Then the retirements abated for a bit.

But the middle stint of the race provided plenty more. RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez retired in the pits, while Rins’ three fellow Honda riders – Joan Mir, Stefan Bradl and Takaaki Nakagami – all crashed out.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Alex Rins LCR Honda CASTROL Honda 20 13 41m14.649s 2m03.126s 0 25
2 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 20 0 +3.498s 2m03.35s 0 20
3 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 20 0 +4.936s 2m03.459s 0 16
4 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 20 0 +8.318s 2m03.471s 0 13
5 Miguel Oliveira CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 20 0 +9.989s 2m03.446s 0 11
6 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 20 0 +12.049s 2m03.567s 0 10
7 Johann Zarco Prima Pramac Racing Ducati 20 0 +12.242s 2m03.624s 0 9
8 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 20 0 +20.399s 2m03.957s 0 8
9 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 20 0 +27.981s 2m04.357s 0 7
10 Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 KTM 20 0 +28.217s 2m04.402s 0 6
11 Michele Pirro Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 20 0 +32.37s 2m04.465s 0 5
12 Jonas Folger GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 KTM 20 0 +1m08.065s 2m06.006s 0 4
13 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 20 0 +1m23.012s 2m03.464s 0 3
Stefan Bradl Repsol Honda Team Honda 18 0 DNF 2m04.565s 0 0
Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 11 0 DNF 2m04.141s 0 0
Joan Mir Repsol Honda Team Honda 8 0 DNF 2m04.166s 0 0
Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 7 7 DNF 2m03.202s 0 0
Jack Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 6 0 DNF 2m03.231s 0 0
Raul Fernandez CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 6 0 DNF 2m04.045s 0 0
Alex Marquez Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Jorge Martin Prima Pramac Racing Ducati 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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