Bastianini wins as Marquez (lone) stars
MOTOGP AUSTIN (USA) 10 APRIL ROUND 4/21
There are two places on the Motogp calendar where a Marc Marquez victory is virtually nailed on: Sachsenring and Austin. In the States, the six-time world champion has scored seven poles and seven victories. Marquez has a love affair with American circuits – their anti-clockwise nature plays to his flat-track background – that has led to him winning all but once on US soil since he stepped up to Motogp in 2013. But this year’s Americas Grand Prix was different. Marquez was absent from the previous weekend’s round in Argentina due to the return of vision problems he suffered in one of the most violent crashes of his career.
At least in public, the goal was never to win. He needed to rebuild his confidence and there was no better place to do that than at the Circuit of The Americas. A worst-ever COTA qualifying of ninth came as a result of a “scared” Marquez “not believing in myself”. But still, his rivals pegged him as favourite. Reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo pulled out two names: Marquez and Enea Bastianini.
The Yamaha rider’s observations were astute: one of those riders did win, but not the one most people thought…
For the first time since Motegi 2003, a manufacturer locked out the top five slots on the grid in qualifying. On that occasion it was Honda; last weekend it was Ducati. While the true potential of the 2022 Ducati remains uncertain, it’s at least still a weapon over a single lap.
Pramac’s poleman Jorge Martin led factory rider Jack Miller, the pair swapping positions at the start of the 20-lap race as Gresini racer Bastianini settled in behind.
Meanwhile, Marquez was going nowhere. An alarm made his Honda “crazy” at the start and he barely got his RC213V into motion up to Turn 1, dropping him to dead last. From there it was “a sprint race”.
On any other day, it surely would have been Marquez against Bastianini, the Spaniard likely coming out the strongest, given how rapid his ride to sixth was.
When Marquez moved into 10th on lap seven, ahead of his sick team-mate
Pol Espargaro, he was 5.1s off the lead, with Bastianini third.
Up front, Miller was beginning to open up a lead of close to a second by the end of lap 11 of 20. Bastianini, managing his soft rear tyre better than most, saw this and pounced on the fading Martin for second. On lap 16, Bastianini made his decisive move on Miller into the Turn 12 hairpin and closed the book on his second win of the campaign on a 2021-spec Ducati still clearly better than the 2022 version.
Marquez’s charge continued through Argentina winner Aleix Espargaro, the fading Pramac bikes and Quartararo, although the last-named offered a stiff resistance reminiscent of the pair’s 2019 battles when the Frenchman was a rookie. The pace was there for fifth, but Marquez’s body cried enough. Physically, he was worn out after his sprint and sixth place, 6.6s behind the victor, was a result that offered “satisfaction” upon a tricky return.
Miller succumbed to a hard-charging Alex Rins’s advances on the final lap, the 2019 COTA winner brilliantly carving through from seventh on the grid to claim Suzuki’s 500th podium. Team-mate Joan Mir cast aside his dislike of the Texan circuit to make a strong run to fourth, and feels that Suzuki is now starting to “make races like in 2020”, while Francesco Bagnaia faded from the front row to fifth, the “maximum” result he could achieve on his works Ducati.
Quartararo’s frustrating title defence on underpowered Yamaha machinery continued with a seventh position he admits he learned more from than many of his wins, while Martin and Johann Zarco slumped to eighth and ninth.
Aleix Espargaro was caught out by a pre-heated tyre he was forced to use as a consequence of his Q1 crash, and had to give best to his Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales in their tussle for 10th. His Honda-mounted brother Pol gritted his teeth through food poisoning for 13th behind Brad Binder after a miserable weekend in Texas for KTM.
Bastianini’s latest triumph now poses a headache for Ducati. Miller’s seat at the factory Ducati squad is up for grabs, the Australian admitting to Autosport that he has been “left in the dark” over his future. Before COTA Martin appeared favourite for his seat. Bastianini, now five points clear in the championship, has complicated this. At least it’s a positive problem for Ducati.