LEWIS DUNCAN
MOTOGPAUSTIN (USA)
14 APRILROUND 3/21
Maverick Vinales may be MotoGP’s most enigmatic rider. Once the paddock’s hottest prospect, in his 10 seasons in the premier class he had just nine grand prix victories to his credit – not to mention an acrimonious mid-season split with Yamaha in 2021. His career was thrown a lifeline by Aprilia, but all the winning was being done by veteran team-mate Aleix Espargaro. And, coming into 2024, it seemed that Vinales would continue to underwhelm on a bike that was clearly a strong contender, but upon which he had completely lacked confidence in pre-season testing.
Aprilia has now been able to find the balance sweet spot for Vinales, however, and from the Portuguese Grand Prix in March he started winning again. A first sprint victory was followed by a second last weekend at the Americas GP, but a first Sunday win since Qatar 2021 had looked doubtful off the line in the 20-lap grand prix. A poor launch dropped the Spaniard from pole to 11th in the Turn 1 melee. After working his way up to ninth at the end of lap one, Vinales was seventh at the start of the fifth tour. That charge continued with an overtake on off-colour reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia on lap nine for fourth position, which became third when Marc Marquez crashed out of the lead on the 11th tour.
Championship leader Jorge Martin succumbed to Vinales’s advances on the same lap, with Pedro Acosta finally ceding the lead after a brief battle two tours later. Any thoughts that Vinales may have chewed up his medium rear tyre in his fightback through the field were put to one side when he posted a race best lap of 2m02.575s 14 laps in.
After describing his pole and sprint success on the Saturday as “magic”, Vinales completed a stunning pole-sprint-grand prix triple emphatically, his lead swelling to 1.7 seconds come the chequered flag.
After becoming the first rider in the modern MotoGP era to win with three different manufacturers (Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia), Vinales is now a big presence in the 2024 title battle as he leaps up to third in the standings. That was helped by a weekend of missed opportunity for Martin. Two crashes in qualifying left the Pramac Ducati star sixth on the grid when he was expected to take pole. He recovered to third in the sprint, but didn’t have the pace to battle Marquez or Vinales. And in the GP, Martin was denied a 100% podium run in 2024 by a penultimate lap overtake from Enea Bastianini.
