Rins sees off Rossi to win Americas MotoGP, Marquez crashes

Full race results from the Americas MotoGP

Alex Rins has claimed his maiden MotoGP victory beating Valentino Rossi at Circuit of the Americas as Marc Marquez crashes out from the lead early on.

Marquez had bolted into a comfortable lead from pole position but his race was wrecked on Lap 9 when he tucked the front of his Repsol Honda braking into Turn 12 at the end of the long back straight.

Despite trying to remount, the reigning MotoGP world champion couldn’t restart his RC213V which forced him out of the race and lose his perfect record at Circuit of the Americas.

Marquez’s off handed Rossi a surprise lead with Rins in hot pursuit with both eying victory pulling away from the chasing Jack Miller.

Rins kept pace with Rossi over the middle third of the race to size up his moment and made his break with four laps to go diving up the inside of the Monster Yamaha rider along the snaking first sector.

Rossi attempted to respond immediately cutting back at the Turn 11 hairpin, only to drift wide, allowing the Suzuki rider to pull out a half-second gap. The Spaniard kept his nerve over the closing laps to take a stunning first premier class win and Suzuki’s first MotoGP triumph since the 2016 British round.

With Miller holding on to third place, his first podium since dramatic win at Assen back in 2016, Andrea Dovizioso had to settle for fourth place on the factory Ducati but takes over the MotoGP world championship lead from the fallen Marquez.

The drama unfolded right from lights out at Joan Mir and Maverick Vinales both picked up ride-through penalties for jump starts – following Cal Crutchlow’s jump start last time out in Argentina – which relegated both riders down the order.

Crutchlow, a podium contender in the early stages, crashed out on Lap 5 at Turn 11 in a similar off to Marquez’s later fall.

With a number of front-runners out, Franco Morbidelli gained redemption from his Argentina final lap crash to take fifth place for Petronas Yamaha ahead of the factory Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.

Rookie Fabio Quartararo grabbed seventh place on the other Petronas Yamaha with Pol Espargaro recording Red Bull KTM’s best dry weather result in MotoGP in eighth place.

Francesco Bagnaia recovered from a disaster race weekend to take ninth place for Pramac Ducati ahead of Takaaki Nakagami on the LCR Honda – the sole Honda finisher after Jorge Lorenzo suffered a mechanical issue at the midway stage.

With Vinales clawing back positions in 11th place after his ride-through penalty, and an incorrect penalty lap, with Andrea Iannone taking 12th place for Aprilia.

Johann Zarco struggled in 13th place for Red Bull KTM ahead of Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira as Tito Rabat claimed his first point of the year for Avintia Ducati having seen off team-mate Karel Abraham at the finish line.

Mir finished three seconds back in 16th with Hafizh Syahrin completing the finishers in 17th. Aleix Espargaro was a Lap 2 faller at Turn 14.