Coming into the 2024 MotoGP season, three riders stood on the edge of making history: Vinales was one with Aprilia, Alex Rins with Yamaha and Jack Miller with KTM are the others.
All grand prix winners already with two manufacturers (Vinales with Suzuki and Yamaha; Rins with Suzuki and Honda; Miller with Honda and Ducati), a victory in 2024 would make them the first riders in the MotoGP era to have won with three different marques.
Vinales’ first win on the Aprilia in the Portugal sprint effectively made him the record holder, but officially he isn’t.
When the sprint format was introduced last year, it was always billed as being counted separate to a grand prix win in the record books. And, understandably, this was bound to cause headaches.
Something all the more complicated about the sprint format is the reticence by many – including the championship – to even refer to it as a ‘race’.
Speaking to numerous paddock journalists last year, the consensus was that most in their weekend written content dedicate very few column inches to what happened in the sprint unless it had a major bearing on the grand prix and the championship at large.
Read over Autosport’s magazine reports for each grand prix and you’ll see how little the sprint is mentioned.
Source: Autosport