Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1519162
ROUND 3 / APRIL 12-14, 2024 CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS / AUSTIN, TEXAS MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP P96 Aprilia). Miller dropped to 13th, blaming his rear tire. Martin's (80 points) fourth place sees him carry a 21-point lead back to Europe over Bas- tianini (59), Vinales (56), Acosta (54), Bagnaia (50) and Binder (49). sought to break clear. Yet the eight-time champ had been having braking issues all race long, meaning a first grab of his front brake had no effect. As he pulled again, the front locked, ruining any chance of a roman- tic return win. At this point, his compatriot took over, with Vinales by Martin on that same lap, turn 20 again his point of attack. And Acosta's half-second lead was soon wiped out with the Aprilia deci - sively hitting the front at turn 11 on lap 13 after a failed attempt the prior lap. The podium places were stretched apart from there, with Vinales building up a lead of 1.3 seconds. Not even an Acosta rally three laps from the flag could stop him, as he claimed a first Sunday win since March of 2021. Acosta was second 1.7 seconds back, with Bastianini's late charge enough for third thanks to late passes on Bagna- ia (lap 13) and Martin (lap 19). "What a race," Acosta said. "It's [been] a long time since I enjoyed a race as much. You cannot imagine how [much] fun I had passing the boys. I overtook them, they overtook me, I had to recover positions. It was super-nice. We learned a lot from Saturday and used it for Sunday and we have to be really happy about that." Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) stayed on for sixth, ahead of Aleix Espargaro (April- ia Racing), Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), the disappointing Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse fourth time around. Marquez (turn 11) and Bagnaia (turn 12) quickly flashed through, rais- ing the question of whether the rookie—the only leader along with Vinales to have gone with Michelin's medium rear rather than the soft—had done too much, too soon. Yet he soon dispelled such fears, taking advantage of Marquez's rub with Martin at the final turn on lap five to climb to third before pushing Bagnaia out at turn one, starting lap seven for second. Having dispelled with Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha) and Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), Vinales was now very much a part of the leading septet, two seconds back of the leader. At this point, Martin appeared capable of breaking clear, his lead growing to eight- tenths of a second on lap eight. Yet the championship leader didn't feel fully comfortable. A lap later and Acosta and Mar - quez had him back in range. When they attacked, they did so with pizazz. First, Acosta dove under Martin at turn 11 on lap 10, with Marquez following suit at the following turn just after they went three abreast down the back straight. Thanks to this scrapping, Vinales suddenly found himself in the victory fight after putting smart moves on Bastianini, Miller (lap seven), and Bagnaia (lap nine), his Aprilia RS-GP clearly supe- rior through the track's flowing final sector. Then Marquez made his play. Passing Acosta for the lead starting lap 11, he immediately not working, and already some engineers wanted to take it out, but some new engineers said, 'No, we will resolve the problem.' Then it was working." Quartararo rejected interest from Aprilia. DORNA TALKS LIBERTY TAKEOVER The news that Liberty Media has acquired MotoGP was ad- dressed on the eve of the Grand Prix of the Americas. Aside from the price and whether the deal will pass regulation, the burn- ing question was what fans can expect to change. Dorna CCO Dan Rossomondo said there will be few changes to the format of MotoGP, while Liberty's mission will be to make the sport "more culturally relevant." He said, "hardcore fans… also want to be in a position to share the sport with so many others, and I think that's what we're going to focus on. It's important that we've been doing a lot of stuff over the last year, and before me, on how to make this spectacle transcend motorsport and become more culturally relevant. We do believe it is the world's most exciting sport. So, it's about preaching that and shouting it from the rooftops." Briefly...