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VINALES TAKES FIRST WIN OF 2020

Maverick Vinales takes first win of 2020 - Photo: LAT

By Bruce Williams

Maverick Vinales takes first win of 2020 - Photo: LAT

Maverick Vinales takes first win of 2020 – Photo: LAT

Maverick Vinales has taken his first win of the 2020 MotoGP Championship after a late-race crash for Francesco Bagnaia.

By RHYS VANDERSYDE

The Yamaha rider who started from pole position held off a challenge from fast-starting Aussie Jack Miller on the opening lap to lead the race early.

Pramac Ducati’s Bagnaia and Miller battled it out for second with the Italian getting the upper hand before putting pressure on Vinales in the battle for the lead.

KTM’s Brad Binder had made his way up into a podium position until he crashed at Turn 15 while pushing hard to chase down leaders, leaving the Vinales and Bagnaia with a comfortable margin over the rest of the field while they jostled amongst themselves.

Valentino Rossi also had a mishap, sliding off the road at Turn 4. While he was able to remount his Yamaha and resume, he would eventually retire from the race.

Bagnaia took advantage of a mistake from Vinales to take the lead on lap six.

Miller’s hopes of a good result vanished on lap eight when his Ducati suffered engine issues, dropping him down the order before eventually retiring.

The battle for the podium saw an intense fight between Pol Espargaro (KTM), Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) and Joan Mir (Suzuki).

With just seven laps to run and comfortable 1.1s margin over the rest of the field, Bagnaia’s race went horribly wrong when dropped his Ducati at Turn 6 handing the lead back to Vinales.

In a couple of impressive moves, Mir pushed his way past both Quartararo and Espargaro to slot into second, while the KTM rider starting to struggle on the softer tyre allowing the Yamaha rider to get past as well.

However a penalty to Quartararo for exceeding track limits handed the podium result back to Espargaro.

Miguel Oliveira (Tech3 KTM) took out fifth ahead of Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), Alex Marquez (Honda), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) and Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) who rounded out the top ten.

MotoGP now heads to Spain for the Catalunya MotoGP next weekend (September 25-27).

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