Rins wins at COTA in third race for Honda, but Bagnaia throws it away again!
As the lights went out, Francesco Bagnaia made a brilliant start as he held off Alex Rins into turn one.
But while it was a great start for the factory Ducati team, drama took place further back as Jorge Martin and Alex Marquez clashed which resulted in crashes for both riders.
Marquez, who crashed out of the Sprint race on his own, was collected by Martin who went down directly in front of him.
As Bagnaia continued to lead despite pressure from Rins, another big name fell on the opening lap as Aleix Espargaro lost the front-end of his Aprilia at turn 12.
Wild the chaos in front of him helped, Jack Miller was a very big mover after leaping up the order to position himself in third.
On lap three, Miller’s charge continued as he set the fastest lap of the race and began closing in on Rins and Bagnaia.
As Rins closed in on Bagnaia, Miller was continuing to approach the top two riders although no rider was in position to make an overtake.
In the battle for the final positions in the top ten, Maverick Vinales was showing good pace and able to make overtakes on Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira
Now struggling to match the front two, Miller ultimately pushed too hard as he crashed out of the Grand Prix on lap 7.
Finally starting to edge away from Rins, just like he did in the Sprint race, Bagnaia made yet another huge error.
The world champion, for the second time in two races, crashed out of the Grand Prix as Rins took over the lead. It was a turn 2 fall for the Ducati star.
Facing intense pressure from Luca Marini for second, Quartararo was holding off the Ducati rider while matching the pace of Rins.
Three crashes then took place in short order as Joan Mir kicked things off before Brad Binder and Takaaki Nakagami joined him.
Like Bagnaia did in the Sprint, Marini showed the immense speed of his Ducati as he finally blasted past Quartararo with eight laps remaining.
After losing five tenths to Marini on the same lap that the Italian overtook Quartararo, the race leader responded in emphatic fashion to give Marini little hope of contending for the victory.
Marini continued to pull clear of Quartararo during the final few laps, but so was Rins as he controlled the gap en route to victory in just his third race for Honda.
