Maverick Viñales is back, and his unquestionable weekend at the GP of the Americas also earns him entry into the MotoGP record book. At 29 years old, the Spaniard becomes the first rider in the modern era of the championship to win with three different factories, after having achieved it with Suzuki, Yamaha and now Aprilia. His last victory on a Sunday dated back to March 28, 2021, when he was still defending the colors of the tuning fork brand just over three years ago.
His crying as soon as he crossed the finish line, after an astonishing comeback of 11 positions during the race, transmitted without filters the hardness of his long journey to this long-awaited reunion with his best form. polecircuit record in qualifying, the fastest lap in the race and two unappealable victories in the sprint on Saturday and the GP on Sunday. Mack He wiped out everything. After some very difficult years, Viñales has once again shown that he is still one of the greatest talents on the grid. Lost in a sea of doubts, in his difficult adaptation to the Noale factory, he came to think if this was still his thing.
“I think I’m about to cry,” he admitted in the parc ferme. In a movie test, with countless overtaking at an unprecedented pace on this winding track and more given to the great differences between drivers, Viñales was able to recover after making a mistake at the start and being hit in a fan with Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia . In the first corner he had lost the train of the front positions, but not hope. “Obviously, I had a problem with the clutch, but then I don’t know how many overtakes I made, I lost count. Our pace has been impressive,” he celebrated.
Disguised as Batman, like all the members of the Italian team, he broke the Ducati’s streak of 11 consecutive wins. His friend Aleix Espargaró, who strongly recommended that he join the Aprilia project and fought for him when very few still believed, also came to hug him effusively. With fewer resources, but a pioneering innovative spirit, the Italian factory seems prepared to battle more than ever with its neighbors in Bologna, great dominators of the competition.
Viñales’ best weekend in MotoGP was accompanied by fireworks, a truly grand spectacle tailored to the American public after the purchase of the sport by Liberty Media. Pedro Acosta, the most dangerous rookie to appear in the category since Marc Márquez, did not bow down to anyone, commanded the test for several laps and finished as the best of the rest, defending himself tooth and nail against each and every one of his experienced rivals. His second position, more due to the way he fought it than in itself, makes it clear that the precocity record of the eight-time world champion is in danger.
Gresini’s, precisely, was the cross of the day when he fell when he was finally leading with the Ducati. His dream of breaking two and a half years of drought was ruined when he lost his front end, but not before having added spice in an open-ended duel with Acosta and his teammates and factory references, the champion Bagnaia and the runner-up Martín. Neither one nor the other, in the end, were able to stay on the podium, surpassed by a fired-up Viñales halfway through the race. Enea Bastianini, who is playing for the second seat in red these days, this time beat the Madrid native from Pramac to complete the podium in Austin. Despite not being able to pass the hammer like in Portugal, Martín, more cerebral than ever, remains the outstanding leader of the championship.
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