Bagnaia relentless as he wins Sprint race at COTA, Quartararo and Marquez crash

Francesco Bagnaia has won his third race of the year after leading every lap of the American MotoGP Sprint race, while Fabio Quartararo and Alex Marquez were scoreless following crashes.

Robert Jones

15 Apr 2023

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati MotoGP COTA 2023

A winner in 2019 and looking to repeat it in the Sprint, Alex Rins made a brilliant start as he challenged Bagnaia for the lead into turn one.

But as Rins dived down the inside, the LCR Honda rider instead ran wide which gifted the lead back to the world champion.

Rins regained the lead a few corners later before Bagnaia used the incredible straight line speed of his Ducati to blast past Rins on the approach to turn 12.

In desperate need of points after a slow start to the season, Fabio Quartararo was a rider on the charge as he moved up from seventh to fourth.

However, the same could not be said for Maverick Vinales and Luca Marini, as both riders lost huge amounts of positions.

Vinales dropped from eighth to 19th on the opening lap, while Marini was also outside the top ten despite starting third.

As Rins attempted to stay close on the back-straight, a mistake under braking soon followed which allowed Espargaro to gain second before contact was made a corner later with Quartararo.

Slowly stretching his lead out front, Bagnaia managed to extend his lead to a full second at the end of lap four as Rins closed back in on Espargaro.

Behind the podium trio, Quartararo was heading backwards as Martin and Marquez both got through on the Yamaha rider.

Things then went from bad to worse as Quartararo made a big mistake at turn one and crashed out of the Sprint.

As the Sprint hit mid-race distance, the most enthralling battle was the one taking place for second as Rins was swarming all over Espargaro. After an attempt at turn 11, Rins made the move stick on lap six at turn seven.

Pushing on to try and pass Martin for fourth, Marquez instead became the latest turn 12 victim as he lost the front-end.

Out front, Bagnaia was as consistent as ever as he controlled the race and won by 2.5 second from Rins.

There was a late attack from Espargaro on Martin for third, but the factory Aprilia rider ran wide with his only overtake at turn 19.