Bastianini Back on Top

Enea Bastianini takes his second win of the season and gets back into the lead of the championship standings after a brilliant ride astride his GP21 Ducati

MOTOGP

After an intense qualifying session, the Ducatis were able to secure the top five spots on the grid. Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) took pole position towards the end of the session with a stunning lap. Coming in second and third place were the factory Ducatis of Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia respectively. Johann Zarco on the Pramac Ducati and Enea Bastianini astride his 2021-spec Gresini Ducati completed the line-up for the top five positions. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), King of COTA, returned to race this weekend after the nasty highside he suffered at the Indonesian GP. He secured a ninth-place start.

As the lights went out for the start of the race, Miller snatched the holeshot

and got into the lead. Martin dropped to second and Bagnaia retained third place. Fabio Quartararo briefly got his Monster Energy Yamaha into P5 on the first lap but dropped to eighth as he was not able to hold off the charging Ducatis and the Team Suzuki Ecstar duo of Alex Rins and Joan Mir. Meanwhile, Marc Marquez did not get the start that he would have wanted as his bike seemed to have some mechanical issues while he was trying to launch it, which dropped him into last place. He quickened his pace, though, and quickly recovered a few places to get into P17. By lap seven, Marc made his way through more than half the field as he overtook his teammate, Pol Espargaro, to get into P10.

Midway through the race, Miller began to open up a slight lead as Enea Bastianini made a move on Martin to get into second place. Martin seemed to be struggling and Alex Rins was able to make a move to get his Suzuki into third place. Bastianini began to chip away at Miller’s lead and, with four laps to go, made a move going into Turn 12. After that, Bastianini opened up a gap that Miller was not able to do anything about. At this stage, Rins was picking up pace on his Suzuki and got very close to Miller. He tried making a move on the last lap at Turn 11 but was not successful as the Ducati re-passed him on the straight. He kept calm, followed Miller closely until he finally pulled off a superb move at the penultimate corner to get into second place. Bastianini comfortably crossed the finish-line with a lead of over two seconds to take victory. With this win, Bastianini tops the championship standings with a lead of five points.

Apart from all the action going on at the front, all the attention was still on the King of

COTA, Marc Marquez. He overtook Quartataro to take P6 on lap 14, after which Quartararo kept him in his sights and tried to fight back on the factory Yamaha. With one lap to go, there was a moment when Marc and Fabio almost touched going into Turn Six. It was a really commendable effort on the part of Marc Marquez as he crossed the line to finish P6 after dropping to the last place at the beginning of the race.

Moto2

Cameron Beaubier claimed his first Moto2 pole with the American Racing team in front of his home fans at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday. The Mooney VR46 rider, Celestino Vietti, qualified in second and Aron Canet put his Flexbox HP40 bike third on the grid.

As the race got under way, Vietti overtook Beaubier going into the Turn One to get into the lead of the race. Within a few corners, Canet and Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS) were also able to get past the pole man, Beaubier, and pushed him down to fourth place. In the middle of the pack, an unfortunate incident at Turn 12 resulted into five riders crashing out of the race. They included Gabriel Rodrigo (SAG Team), Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS), Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Fermin Aldeguer (Speed Up), and Zonta van der Goorbergh (RW Racing GP).

Jake Dixon (Gaviota GasGas Aspar), fighting from the back, had moved into fourth place after passing Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Soon after, Canet made the move on Vietti to take the lead. The race ended early for Acosta as his rear tyre lost grip and he crashed out. In an unexpected turn of events, Vietti crashed out of second while trying to keep up with the race leader. Soon after, Canet was ahead of the pack with a comfortable 1.7-second lead. His hopes for a win also came to an end as he crashed while going into Turn Seven. Arbolino got ahead and started to stretch his lead. He was able to claim his first Moto2 win after a dramatic round of the championship. Honda Team Asia’s Ai Ogura came in second and Britain’s Jake Dixon took his first Moto2 podium, coming in third.

Moto3

The Qatar winner, Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Honda), took pole position for the fourth round. Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda) started second and Xavier Artigas (CFMoto Racing Prüstel GP) completed the front row.

As the lights went out for the start of this Moto3 race, all the riders at the front began pushing to gain positions at the front. After some close racing for a few corners at the start, Deniz Öncü, who had started in fifth on his Tech 3 KTM, got into the lead. Following closely were Diogo Moreira (MT Helmets MSI RaceTech KTM) and Migno in second and third places respectively.

Midway through the race, the group of seven riders out in front kept exchanging positions. The highlight came towards the end as Migno led starting the last lap, followed by Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) in second and Foggia in third. Masia passed Migno on the back straight to claim the lead of the race. With two corners to go, Migno was pushing hard to make a move on Masia to try and reclaim the lead. Migno ran slightly wide and allowed Masia and Foggia to slip through the inside as he finally crossed the chequered flag in third. With Foggia finishing in second, he is the championship standings leader with a 16-point advantage.