The horsepower rodeo at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas produced a stunner: the King of COTA Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) lost his crown, it was picked up by a first time premier class winner in the form of Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) secured a second consecutive P2, Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller earned his first Ducati podium and the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) leaves Texas as the title leader.
All this, combined with what we saw in Qatar and Argentina, has made the start to the 2019 season an absolute belter. We’ve seen three different winners on three different manufacturers: Dovizioso and Ducati in Qatar, Marquez and Honda in Argentina and Rins on board the Suzuki in America – the Hamamatsu factory’s first win since the 2016 British GP.
The Qatar GP produced the closest ever top 15 premier class finish, with just 0.6 splitting the top five. And on Sunday in Texas, we saw a rider secure a maiden MotoGP™ win for the first time since the aforementioned 2016 Silverstone race. Not to mention Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) securing the Austrian factory’s best ever qualifying result with a P5 in Texas, backing it up with their best dry race finish of eighth, and rookies like Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) getting stuck in it to MotoGP™’s top dogs from the off.
So as the dust settles on the Americas GP, we have four riders separated by nine points heading into the European leg of the season. Dovizioso (1st, 3rd, 4th) leads the way on 54 points, Rossi (5th, 2nd, 2nd) sits seconds on 51, Rins (4th, 5th, 1st) is third on 49 and Marquez (2nd, 1st, DNF) holds fourth on 45.
It’s been a colossal start to the 2019 Championship, and it only looks to be getting better. The historical Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto plays host next – will it be four winners in four down in the south of Spain?