At Honda, if the winner was unprecedented in Austin, since his name was not Marc Marquez, a first since 2018, the big gap in terms of results between its drivers remained. So, while Alex Rins triumphed, his teammate Nakagami and official Repsol riders Joan Mir and Stefan Bradl visited the gravel pit. All three for different reasons. The biggest disappointment was for Marc Marquez's replacement who fell two laps from the goal even though he had the points for eleventh place assured...
We have already talked about Joan mir who recognizes an error when beginning his attack against Franco Morbidelli. On the case Nakagami, the reasons for the fall could be found on the mechanical side. “ In the race I had problems changing gears, I don't know why it was like that, but I had a hard time downshifting » says the Japanese. “ The gear couldn't engage, and before the fall I tried to stop the bike, but then the front locked up and the race was over. I can't say much more than that ". Except this which marks the disappointment: “ we were unlucky because we could have scored important points ».
But on the disappointment side, the prize undoubtedly goes to the Honda clan at Stefan bradl. He explains : " It was a harmless fall at turn 13, a slide that didn't hurt me. We looked at the data on the computer, but even then, it was unclear why the front wheel slipped. I was on the same line as on all the previous laps and I didn't go any faster ", said the HRC test pilot. “ This is why the fall is so incomprehensible to me. It's a shame, I was fine, I was eleventh without any problems, even a top ten was within reach ».
Bradl Honda: “ a fall on the penultimate lap is difficult for me to accept, especially because I am not aware of any mistakes »
And he ends: “ a fall on the penultimate lap is difficult for me to accept, especially because I am not aware of any mistakes ". On the accident side, we will remember that this Grand Prix of the Americas still caused many regrets. Jorge Martín, Aleix Espargaró et Alex Marquez were eliminated in the first round. Jack Miller, Raul Fernandez, Francesco Bagnaia, Takaaki Nakagami and Bradl's teammate, Joan Mir then followed.
A real massacre which prompted this comment from Carlo Pernat on GP One : " Austin was the Grand Prix of accidents. It was probably the most accidents I have ever seen in years of this sport. This Grand Prix was really out of the ordinary: only 13 drivers finished the race, too few, with 3 test drivers among them ».
MotoGP, Austin J3: classification
