AUSTIN, Texas – Suzuki’s Alex Rins scored a breakthrough MotoGP victory on Sunday at Circuit of the Americas, ending Marc Marquez’s undefeated streak at the Texas facility.
Marquez was seeking his seventh-straight premier class win at COTA, but crashed out from the lead at turn 12 on lap nine of the 20-lap event, opening the door for Rins to pounce.
After holding a 3.5-second margin over Valentino Rossi, Marquez’s sudden exit shook up the front of the leaderboard, and it was Rins who ultimately capitalized in the closing stages.
The Team Suzuki Ecstar rider passed Rossi with four to go at turn 17, assuming a lead he would never relinquish after Rossi’s planned counterattack at turn 12 with three laps left pushed the nine-time champion too wide.
From there, Rins drove home to deliver Suzuki’s first MotoGP victory since the 2016 British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit, a race won by now-Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales.
Rossi hung on to finish second, .462 of a second in arrears, with Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller a distant third on worn soft tires, his first podium since winning the 2016 Dutch TT.
Andrea Dovizioso’s fourth-place finish was enough to give him the championship lead, thanks to Marquez’s crash and non-points score, while Franco Morbidelli was fifth.
Danilo Petrucci, Fabio Quartararo, Pol Espargaro, Francesco Bagnaia and Takaaki Nakagami completed the top 10.
Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, also failed to finish Sunday’s race due to a mechanical failure.