Bastianini Wins In America As Márquez Dazzles
Calum Gill 20:22 10/04/2022
Gresini's Enea Bastianini reclaimed the MotoGP championship lead by winning at the Circuit of the Americas, as the returning Marc Márquez dazzled by charging from the back of the field to sixth.
Honda’s six-time MotoGP champion Márquez, who recovered from his latest bout of double vision just in time to race at the American track, where he’d lost just once in his career before this Sunday, couldn’t get going properly at the start, dropping back from ninth to dead last off the line as a result. Yet he was up to 18th after the opening lap, made that 16th a lap later and charged into the top 10th the expense of his factory team-mate Pol Espargaró on lap six. His progress continued from there on, and he would wind up defeating reigning champion Fabio Quartararo in a heated late-race tussle to claim sixth place.
At the start, Jack Miller picked off poleman Jorge Martín as Ducati’s stranglehold on the race was maintained early on - with Quartararo briefly disrupting the 1-2-3-4-5 by passing compatriot Johann Zarco, before soon giving up the spot back to Zarco. Martín briefly reclaimed the lead in the penultimate corner of the opening lap, but Miller was back ahead a corner later, the pair then spending the next few laps in tandem out front. With the pack not spreading out much, the Ducati lead group was pierced again on the sixth lap - this time by Álex Rins, who after taking care of Quartararo’s Yamaha moved past Francesco Bagnaia before engaging in a lengthy duel with Zarco, in which he finally prevailed at Turn 12 on the eighth lap.
Suzuki rider Rins then came up on third-placed Bastianini in virtually no time, attempting a pair of Turn 11 lunges that never came off - before Bastianini himself successfully lunged down the inside of Martín at Turn 1. Rins dispatched Martín a few corners later, but by then the pair had nearly a second to make up to Miller, who had been slowly but steadily building a gap out front. But while Rins was unable to keep pace with Miller up ahead, Bastianini was fully capable - and, having kept the gap steady for some time after having cleared Martín, he then suddenly began to make huge inroads with seven laps left to run.
On lap 16 of 20 Bastianini breezed past Miller on the back straight, before putting half a second between himself and the works Ducati over the next couple of sectors. His lead would balloon to two seconds in time for the chequered flag as Miller had fallen back into the clutches of Rins. The Suzuki rider got past at Turn 11 on the final lap, but Miller slipstreamed back past on the back straight - only for Rins to finally claim the spot for good in the penultimate corner of the race. Joan Mir made it two Suzukis in the top four, having likewise made his way through the gaggle of Ducatis, while Bagnaia completed the top five, finishing just head of the Márquez - Quartararo duel.
Pramac duo Martín and Zarco had to settle for eighth and ninth, Zarco finishing just ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Viñales - who came out on top in a multi-lap battle against team-mate Aleix Espargaró and Brad Binder, the only points-scorer for KTM. Pol Espargaró was 13th, ahead of Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda, with RNF Yamaha's Andrea Dovizioso in the final points-paying position. While the Moto2 race that preceded the premier-class had been a total crashfest, only two riders fell during the MotoGP event - these being rookie Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) and Álex Márquez (LCR Honda).
