MotoGP | Encore by Vinales in the Austin Sprint, Marquez and Martin on the podium

Maverick Vinales and Aprilia seem to have definitely taken a liking to it. In defiance of those who would have expected the now usual ups and downs that have characterized the career of the Aprilia standard bearer, in Austin he is following up on the very solid weekend in Portimao.

The driver from Roses, in fact, took home his second consecutive victory in a Sprint. And he did it absolutely by force: starting very well from pole position, Maverick commanded each of the ten scheduled laps of the Circuit of the Americas, taking off just before half-way through the race and arriving under the checkered flag with a margin of over two seconds over the pursuers. We can say that today he was in all respects “Batman” and not just because he had the logo of the champion of Gotham City on his helmet.

Behind him, however, the battle was rather close, especially in the first half of the race, with Marc Marquez having to watch his back from the rookie Pedro Acosta, who for several laps gave the sensation of even being able to try to attack the figure eight times world champion, great Texan up-and-down specialist.

However, the music changed when Jorge Martin's Ducati materialized in the tail of his GasGas-branded KTM. The Prima Pramac Racing rider didn't start too brilliantly, but then arrived in a vehement manner and found a nice strong overtaking move at turn 11, which then ended up breaking the pace of the Moto2 world champion.

However, with his “block pass” “Martinator” also allowed Marquez to dig a small furrow, which the #93 then managed very well until the finish line, thus taking a place of honor worth second place on the podium in a Sprint consecutively aboard the Gresini Racing Ducati, from whom however perhaps even more was expected on a track on which he has won seven times in the past.

Martin can rejoice instead, who so far is the only one to have always managed to get on the podium between Sprint and long races, as well as having increased his margin in the standings. It was an excellent day for Aprilia, because in addition to Vinales' success, Aleix Espargaro also achieved fifth place, but also ninth place for an excellent Raul Fernandez, who moved up from 13th place on the grid with the RS -GP23 by Trackhouse Racing.

Different story for the official Ducatis, because the race of Enea Bastianini and Pecco Bagnaia was particularly disappointing and ended with a sixth and an eighth place, with Jack Miller's KTM sandwiched between them. “Beast” also started well, placing himself in fourth position at the start of the race, but then gradually lost positions. The opposite is the case for the world champion, who paid for a surge at the start that dropped him to tenth, but then he never found the pace to try to recover.

Considering that Brad Binder moved up from 17th place on the grid to 12th, but did not take home any points, in the world championship classification Martin now has a 24 point margin over Bastianini, 25 over the South African and 28 over Bagnaia, with Marquez fifth in -31.

Also out of the points are Franco Morbidelli and Marco Bezzecchi, tenth and 13th respectively, while Fabio Di Giannantonio was forced to surrender almost immediately, with the engine of his Ducati going up in smoke during the first lap. However, it was a Saturday to forget for the Japanese bikes, with the Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins in 15th and 16th position with a gap of over 15 seconds in just 10 laps. Honda, on the other hand, only brought Luca Marini to the finish line, 17th and last.