Rins and Repeat

Alex Rins claimed a brilliant début victory for the LCR Honda Castrol team at the Circuit of the Americas (CotA). Here is all that went down in the races that took place over an unpredictable weekend

- Azaman Chothia

Sprint Race

FRANCESCO BAGNAIA (DUCATI Lenovo Team) qualified on pole in the qualifying session. Starting in second and third place respectively were Alex Rins (LCR Honda Castrol) and Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing). Rins got a perfect launch at the start of the sprint as he took the holeshot into Turn One. Bagnaia battled with Rins and was able to take the lead, passing him on the back straight. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) had also made superb starts and were in P3 and P4 respectively. While Rins was chasing Bagnaia at the front, he braked a little too late at Turn 12, allowing Espargaro through to gain second. Quartararo also tried to take advantage of this situation but ended up making contact with Rins, thus not being able to make the move stick.

Two laps later, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) joined the battle at the front as he passed Quartararo to move into P4 after having started 12th on the grid. A little later, Quartararo was also passed by Alex Márquez (Gresini Racing). Half a lap later, Quartararo crashed out of the race and re-joined in P21.

At this point, Bagnaia started to stretch out his lead and was over a second ahead with eight laps to go. He then continued to push and, towards the end, secured victory with a lead of 2.5 seconds. The battle for P2 was between Aleix Espargaro and Rins. Rins was all over the rear wheel of the Aprilia, while the Ducatis of Martin and Márquez were battling for fourth.