‘Pecco’ Bagnaia earned an amazing victory at Austin after a battled round with Alex Marquez, who finished 2nd ahead of Miguel Oliveira.
The second win of the season and the leading position in the World Championship ranking: Francesco Bagnaia‘s Texan weekend ended in the best possible way. He and Alex Marquez starred a great final duel to get the best position on the podium, but it was the Italian rider who eventually crossed the finish line first with a considerable margin on the contender. The team Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS rider arrived 2nd and Miguel Oliveira joined the podium, performing a great come back from 12th position on the starting grid.
Even before the warm-up round, Jules Danilo experienced some issues with his bike and had to be pushed back to pit lane, eventually starting the race from there. Pole-man Marquez started wonderfully, followed by Pasini and Bagnaia. A series of small hits in the middle of the group involved Marini, Mir and Aegerter, luckily with no one falling. Soon, Pasini’s race got complicated and he lost a number of positions. We also witnessed Schrotter’s violent high side: he was 4th until then but once he got back up he had to be carried at the Medical Center for examinations as he was holding his right shoulder. Ten rounds before the end of the race the battle fired up. Bagnaia lost all the edge he had on Marquez, while Oliveira managed to climb up to 3rd and tried to reach the leading duo, but he had already collected a series of delays.
In the end, due to his excellent race-rhythm and a few Marquez’s near-falls, Francesco Bagnaia managed to get a considerable edge on his contender: that’s how the team Sky Racing VR46 Italian rider got his second win of the season. This result also ensures him the head of the World Championship ranking. Alex Marquez finished 2nd and Miguel Oliveira got a great 3rd place. To be noticed also Joan Mir and Iker Lecuona’s races as they both performed spectacular comebacks from the last positions to 4th and 5th. Brad Binder closed 6th ahead of Mattia Pasini and Jorge Navarro, while Dominique Aegerter and Lorenzo Baldassarri filled the last positions in the top 10.
The other positions belonging to Italian riders are: Simone Corsi 12th ahead of Luca Marini and Andrea Locatelli. Romano Fenati arrived 16th and Federico Fulingi 28th, while Stefano Manzi had to leave the race earlier because of a fall.
The ranking
