Americas MotoGP

[wombat666]

"Having ended his six-year Circuit of the Americas victory streak with a crash in 2019, Marquez made amends for this in Sunday’s 2021 edition of the Austin race and led every lap to take a commanding win.

The Honda rider leaped from third to the lead on the run up the hill into the first corner at the start, with Quartararo edging ahead of poleman Francesco Bagnaia.

In the opening laps, Marquez was kept in touch by the chasing Quartararo, while Bagnaia slid backwards to sixth as Alex Rins jumped up from seventh to third on lap one.

By lap six of 20 Marquez began to stretch ahead at the front of the field, his lead opening up to seven tenths and continuing to climb to 1.5s come the following tour.

By now Pramac rookie Jorge Martin was the one chasing Quartararo in third, with the Yamaha rider fending off the Ducati and eventually pulling away from him.

Marquez was over four seconds clear of Quartararo by the time he started his final lap and came under no threat through to the chequered flag.

Quartararo took a comfortable second to strengthen his championship lead and head to the next round at Misano with his first opportunity at wrapping up the 2021 title."



Good to see the lengthy recovery cycle is apparently coming good for Marquez, and I'm really really impressed with the maturity shown by Fabio Quartararo.
He certainly knows the importance of banking points instead of fighting for a win as his championship lead stands at 48 points with four races to go.
If you bin it you won't win it.

[huub vink]

Battle for first and second place wasn't that interesting. But the rest of the field seemed to continuously change position during the race. Jack Miller needs to think about his tire choice.....

And Austin is the circuit for MM, so his win didn't come as a surprise.

Cheers,
Huub

[wombat666]

Sometimes I think Jack should stop experimenting with tyres and go along with the rest of the Ducatis.
Consistency wins races and scores points.

Certainly COTA seems to suit Marc but while most riders complained about the current state of the circuit he just rode away from them all.
Fabio probably conceded this round and is thinking 'Championship'.
Sachsenring has been dominated by Marc supposedly because it runs clockwise but COTA is the opposite so I just don't know,

It might signal further gains to his fitness which could lead to a fierce season 2022 with Fabio as 2021 Champion up against a hungry Marc and a host of excellent talent throughout the field.
So far the high point of this season (for me) has been the varied number of Ducati wins and podiums along with the rise of Aprilia.