2024 Americas MotoGP, COTA - Race Results

*Rookie.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales has become only the fifth rider in history to officially win premier-class races on three different brands of bike - and the first of the post-2002 ‘MotoGP’ era - after a stunning recovery in the Americas Grand Prix at COTA.

The sprint winner and pole starter fought back from eleventh place after being bumped wide at Turn 1, in a race that saw rookie star Pedro Acosta fighting at the front throughout and Marc Marquez fall moments after taking the lead.

Acosta went on to claim his best-yet MotoGP result of second, while Enea Bastianini got the better of title leader Jorge Martin for third.

Bastianini’s factory Ducati team-mate and reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia was among the early victory contenders before slipping to fifth.

It was Vinales' tenth MotoGP win but first since Qatar 2021 with Yamaha, after a debut victory for Suzuki in 2016. He is the second rider to win on an RS-GP, after team-mate Aleix Espargaro.

Despite struggling in the Qatar opener, Vinales has now won all three races he has finished since, having retired from a podium place at Portimao due to a gearbox issue.

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Unlike the Sprint, where all riders chose the medium front and soft rear tyre, the grid was split between the soft and medium rear for the full 20-lap contest.

Some hectic early laps began with Acosta snatching the holeshot while Vinales was bumped wide at Turn 1 by Bagnaia, who had been forced to sit up by title leader Martin.

Vinales dropped to eleventh while the likes of Acosta, Bastianini, Jack Miller, Martin, Bagnaia and Marquez were soon slugging it out at the front.

Acosta put up a valiant defence of the lead, while Marquez lost a sidepod in a clash with Miller on his way towards the front, then clipped the back of race leader Martin after a lunge at the end of lap 5 of 20.

The blow-for-blow battles continued when Acosta ploughed up the inside of Martin to regain the lead at the halfway mark. Marquez took advantage of the move to claim second - then passed Acosta to take the race lead for the first time as a Gresini Ducati rider…

But it all counted for nothing when the seven-time COTA winner suddenly tucked the front at Turn 11 and slid into the gravel.

That put Acosta into the race lead but with the charging Vinales now on his rear wheel. The Aprilia rider was clearly quicker, but the teenager kept the RS-GP at bay until 8 laps to go.

The unstable COTA subsoil meant there was a partial resurfacing ahead of this year’s MotoGP event, with new asphalt at turns 2, 9-11, 12 and 16-19.

Revised tyre pressure rules for 2024 mean riders must now stay above a lower front minimum of 1.8 bar (instead of 1.88) for 60% (instead of 50%) of a Grand Prix distance, or 30% of a Sprint.

The penalty for failing to meet this minimum in a Grand Prix will be a 16-second post-race time penalty, or an 8-second penalty for a Sprint/short race.