Maverick Vinales wins the American Grand Prix with rookie Pedro Acosta finishing in second

Maverick Vinales started from pole position and was the favourite to take his first Grand Prix victory on the Aprilia RS-GP. Rookie Pedro Acosta was alongside Vinales in second with Marc Marquez rounding out the front row in third. Francesco Bagnaia headed the second row from fourth and was hoping to right the eighth position in the Tissot sprint, his team-mate Enea Bastianini was fifth and championship leader Jorge Martin was on the tail of the second row in sixth.

The lights went out and it was Acosta who lead into turn one ahead of Bastianini and Martin. Jack Miller was fourth ahead of Marquez in fifth and Pecco Bagnaia in sixth. Bastianini got duffed up by Martin at turn eight and dropped down to sixth by the end of the lap. Pole sitter Vinales was down in ninth after a disastrous turn one.

On lap two Martin attacked Acosta into turn 11 but ran wide, Marquez also attacked Miller and went wide, the Aussie cut back and the two made contact with Marquez losing some aero and Pecco took the pair of them for third.

On lap four Martin took the lead at turn seven with Marquez passing Pecco at the same corner. Acosta then ran wide at turn 11 and by turn 12 Marquez and Bagnaia had gone through on the Tech3 rider. Vinales had made his way up to seventh.

Marquez made a late lunge at turn 20 on lap five on Martin but couldn’t fully pass the Prima Pramac rider and Marquez made contact and dropped down to fourth.

Pecco had a poor run out of the last corner on the sixth lap and Acosta sent it up the inside at turn one on lap seven and took second place. Marquez then rubbed his way passed Bagnaia at turn eight for third.

Vinales moved into the top five, block passing Miller into the last corner on lap seven and the Aprilia had Bagnaia next to overtake. Franky Morbidelli who was in tenth crashed out in the second sector on lap eight.

Vinales and Bagnaia were going back and fourth with Vinales getting the better of the world champion. Martin had a 0.9 second lead but made some form of mistake and Acosta and Marquez were on his rear tyre.

Acosta passed Martin at turn 11 on lap ten and ran them both wide and Marquez was able to take profit and moved into second ahead of Martin.

Marquez took the lead of the race at turn one block passing Acosta as his brother Alex Marquez went down at the same corner. Marc Marquez then lost the front at turn 11! A big mistake by the eight-time world champion and he was out of the American Grand Prix.

Meanwhile Vinales had passed Martin at turn 20 to move into second place and was the fastest on track by quite some margin.

Vinales overtook Acosta in turn 12 but ran ever so wide and the 19-year-old retook the lead. Bastiaini passed his team-mate Bagnaia and made him sit-up for fourth place. Vinales took the lead at turn 11 and held off Acosta into turn 12.

Bastianini passed Martin on the exit of turn 11 on the penultimate lap to move into third place.

Vinales crossed the line to take his first Grand Prix victory since Qatar 2021 and is the first rider to win on three different manufacturers in the MotoGP class. Pedro Acosta finished in an incredible second place to become the youngest rookie to take back-to-back podiums, Enea Bastianini was top Ducati in third place. Jorge Martin leads the championship by 21 points but took his first non-podium finish of the season in fourth place, Pecco Bagnaia took his worst Grand Prix finish without crashing since Valencia 2022 with a fifth place finish and Fabio Di Giannantonio was top GP23 Ducati in sixth.

Featured Image: Maverick Vinales