Sergio Garcia has claimed both his and the MT Helmets-MSI team’s maiden Moto2 World Championship victory after keeping it neat to see off a determined challenge from home hope Joe Roberts at Circuit of The Americas.

The Spaniard led from Turn 1 after getting the better start from the front row over pole sitter Aron Canet and Fermin Aldeguer alongside him before settling into a rhythm and steadily pulling away from the chasing pack.

In doing so, he would deny hopes of a popular home-grown winner in Roberts, the American Racing rider taking the fight to Garcia initially but eventually settling for second as Aldeguer secured his first podium of the season in third.

For Garcia, he’d get the lion’s share of the hard work done in the moments after lights out with his quick getaway from third on the grid and hitting his braking marker correctly on the run uphill to the tricky Turn 1 left-hander.

The same couldn’t be said for most around him, however, after many ran wide on the apex, in particular Marcos Ramirez who threw away his victory chances as his ‘hole-shot’ became an overshoot, dropping him down the order.

As riders washed out in unison wide enough to open up a gap around Turn 1, Jake Dixon happily accepted the invitation to slip through on the inside of his rivals to surge from 14th to fourth, though his afternoon wouldn’t last much longer when he tipped off at Turn 1 on Lap 5 to extend what has been a difficult start to 2024 for one of the pre-season title favourites.

Up at the front, however, it was Garcia making the pace, chased gamely by Roberts, the American riding the wave of partisan support in an effort to keep up with the Boscoscuro ahead of him.

However, Garcia would eventually begin to pull a margin over his rival, the 2022 Moto3 runner-up keeping his cool to move more than two seconds clear. Though a wide moment at Turn 12 in the closing stages gave Roberts the sniff of a fightback, Garcia’s victory was all-but-decided when his rival did something similar with three laps remaining.

Easing off in the closing stages, Garcia crossed the line with just under 0.5s in hand over Roberts, who despite dropping to third briefly as a consequence of his mistake, still assured himself second at the flag for a second podium of the season.

First and second also means Garcia and Roberts hold first and second in the overall standings after three rounds, the former holding a two point advantage over his rival.

In third, Aldeguer paid the price for a poor start, not to mention a time-sapping early tussle with Speed Up Racing team-mate Alonso Lopez, for being unable to get back on terms with Garcia out front. But after what has been a tricky start to the year for the pre-season title favourite, he'd steady the ship by hauling himself up to third for his first podium of 2024.

He was chased home by Lopez, who ensured a lucrative day at the office for Speed Up Racing in fourth place, ahead of a recovering Ramirez, the Spaniard - who dropped as low as 15th after his Turn 1 error - no doubt frustrated at missing an opportunity to take home silverware at his team's home round.

Dennis Foggia completed his strongest Moto2 race weekend yet with a career-best ride to sixth having run as high as third on the Italtrans machine in the early stages.

Ai Ogura complemented his team-mate's victory in seventh place from Jeremy Alcoba in eighth, while pole sitter and erstwhile points' leader Aron Canet could only manage ninth after losing a fistful of positions on the opening lap.

Celestino Vietti completed the top ten, ahead of 2023 COTA second place finisher Tony Arbolino in 11th, Albert Arenas in 12th, Manuel Gonzalez in 13th, Diogo Moreira scoring his first Moto2 points in 14th and Filip Salac also getting on the board for the first time in 2024 in 15th.

🇺🇸 ⏱️ 2024 Grand Prix of The Americas Moto2, COTA | RACE Results

Sunday | Conditions - Cloudy, Dry