Maverick Vinales makes history in MotoGP
At this year’s Americas GP, victory for Maverick Vinales saw him become the first rider in MotoGP to win a premier class main race for three different manufacturers. While a handful of riders have achieved this feat in the 500cc two-stroke era, none have done so since the switch to four-strokes in 2002 that heralded the start of MotoGP. This includes highly-rated talent, like Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who have ridden for three manufacturers.
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Vinales’s main race victory came on top of securing pole and winning the Tissot Sprint at the Circuit of the Americas (CotA); a circuit he hasn’t won at since entering the premier class in 2015. It was also the Spaniard’s first main race win since he joined Aprilia midway through the 2021 season and Aprilia’s best ever result at CotA.
The rollercoaster ride to victory started when Vinales was pushed wide in an aggressive start to the race and fell back to eleventh, although he had recovered to ninth by the end of the opening lap. Passing Francesco Bagania (Ducati Lenovo Team) for fourth on lap 9, Vinales then set after the leading trio of Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3), Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing).
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A fall from Marquez and a pass on Martin had Vinales up to second place by lap 11, then the race lead after overtaking Acosta two laps later.
Holding Acosta at bay to take his first premier class main race win since the start of 2021 and his first ever with Aprilia, Vinales capped off a perfect weekend.
"This shows that you can never give up. You must have faith in your own abilities and keep growing,” Vinales said. “This is an historic achievement and I knew from the first day I arrived with Aprilia that I would be able to accomplish it. I wish to thank everyone who gave me the strength to continue, the folks in Noale, my team, and my family."
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Vinales’s route to MotoGP history started when he joined Team Suzuki Ecstar in 2015 after finishing third in the Moto2 World Championship the year before. His first premier class win on the GSX-RR came at the British GP in 2016.
A switch to Movistar Yamaha MotoGP in 2017 proved immediately successful, with Vinales winning the opening two rounds on the YZR-M1, then taking his third win with Yamaha at the French GP. A memorable win in the 2018 Australian GP was followed by victories in the Dutch TT and Malaysian GP in 2019.
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In the COVID-compromised 2020 season, Vinales took his only victory at the second back-to-back round at Misano. After winning the 2021 MotoGP season opener in Qatar, the Spaniard’s relationship with Yamaha began to sour, to the point that he was dropped by the team after a contentious finish to the Styrian GP at Spielberg. Picked up by Aprilia Racing for the final half dozen rounds that year, Vinales was retained by the Noale team for 2022, securing podium results on the RS-GP at the Dutch TT, British GP and San Marino GP. Further podium finishes came in 2023, but no victories until this year’s Portuguese GP, where Vinales won the Tissot Sprint, followed by the Americas GP at CotA with the sprint win and history-making main race victory.
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Although he’s the first to win in the MotoGP era with three different manufacturers, Vinales isn’t the first in the history of premier class grand prix racing. The first to do so was the great Mike Hailwood, who won for Norton, MV Agusta and Honda. Randy Mamola would be the next to do the treble, winning for Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki in the 1980s, while Eddie Lawson won with Yamaha, Honda and Cagiva. Prior to Vinales, the most recent member of the three-peat club was Loris Capirossi, who won with Yamaha and Honda in the two-stroke era before delivering Ducati’s first premier class win in the four-stroke era in 2003.
Of the current MotoGP grid, only Jack Miller and Alex Rins are capable of matching Vinales’s achievement. Miller won with Honda and Ducati and is now with KTM, while Rins won with Suzuki and Honda and is now on a Yamaha.