Marc Marquez crashes while attacking Fabio Di Giannantonio and also brings him down – Marco Bezzecchi retires due to crash – Jorge Martin wins ahead of Bagnaia
Aprilia works rider Jorge Martin won a turbulent sprint at the US Grand Prix on the Circuit of The Americas in Austin. On the last lap he overtook Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and took the lead in the World Championship. Pedro Acosta (KTM) crossed the finish line in third place, but lost the podium due to a tire pressure penalty.
For the short ten-lap race, everyone opted for the medium front tire. With the exception of Martin, who had also chosen the medium rear tire, everyone rode with the soft rear tire.
At the start, Bagnaia took the lead in turn 1 ahead of Acosta and Marc Marquez (Ducati), but Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) attacked in turn 7 and snatched third place. Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) had dropped back to seventh place in the starting phase.
On the first lap, Marc Marquez attacked Di Giannantonio at the end of the long straight and missed him on the inside. The world champion crashed at the apex and also knocked the Italian to the ground. Both continued the race at the back of the field.
After the first lap, Bagnaia led ahead of Acosta, Joan Mir (Honda) and the Aprilia duo. Bagnaia was able to pull away from his pursuers by around a second in the first three laps. Martin put Mir under pressure and overtook him at the start of the fourth lap. This put Martin in third place.
The former world champion was on the advance. On the long straight, he also overtook Acosta and was the new runner-up. At this point, Bagnaia was leading by 1.3 seconds. Bezzecchi also got stronger, overtaking Mir and Acosta and working his way up to third place.
At the halfway point of the race, Bagnaia continued to lead the Aprilia duo by around one and a half seconds. Four laps before the end of the race, Bezzecchi overtook his teammate Martin in turn 11, who then also failed to counterattack at the end of the long straight.
Exactly one lap later, Bezzecchi crashed in turn 11 and was out of the race. The Italian was annoyed about his mistake. He had already crashed out in the sprint at the season opener in Thailand.
Decision for victory on the last lap
At the start of the last lap, Mir, who was in fourth place, crashed in turn 1. Bagnaia only had a lead of eight tenths of a second for the last lap, but this quickly dwindled. At the end of the long straight, Martin outbraked the Ducati and took the lead.
For the first time since the fall of 2024, Martin won a sprint again. He won for the first time with Aprilia and thus also took the world championship lead one point ahead of Bezzecchi (to the world championship standings). With 17 sprint wins, the Spaniard is once again the sole record holder in this classification.
On the final lap, Martin experienced an unusual moment of shock. He did a wheelie down the long back straight. When the front wheel touched down on the asphalt, it locked and Martin crashed. He could hardly believe his faux pas, but took it with humor.
“Rodeo time, baby!” says Martin with a laugh. “I’m super happy. My first MotoGP win here – fantastic. I haven’t ridden here for two years and have missed it. The decision to go for the medium tire was perhaps risky, but I knew it was the right one.“
”I had to wait until the last lap. I’ve never won a race like this in MotoGP. Winning another sprint means a lot to me. Thanks to Aprilia – a great team, they are helping me a lot to find my level again.”
Bagnaia was narrowly beaten into second place. “I tried to ride a bit more calmly after the first lap, after pushing quite hard at the start,” he said of his race. “I wanted to build up a small lead for the end.”
“In the end, I had problems with the soft rear tire. Nevertheless, I am very happy about the hard work we are doing. We deserve a result like this. Thanks to the team, we’ll try to make another step tomorrow.”
Ride pressure penalty costs Acosta third place
Acosta finished third, but the KTM rider was investigated for the minimum pressure in the front tire. “That’s just the way it is,” he commented succinctly. “I already knew after qualifying that it would be difficult to beat the Aprilias and Ducatis.”
“But I think we did a good job, the KTM works quite well here. We can definitely be satisfied.” After the race, the tire pressure penalty was confirmed. The time penalty of eight seconds was Acosta back in eighth place
So Enea Bastianini (Tech3-KTM) inherited third place, who prevailed in the duel against Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati). Luca Marini (Honda) finished fifth, followed by Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) (to the result).
Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) scored one championship point in ninth behind Acosta. Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) finished eleventh. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac-Yamaha) retired at the halfway point with a technical problem.
Marc Marquez was lapped and finished 17th and last. Di Giannantonio had retired prematurely in the pits. Marquez received a long lap penalty for the Grand Prix for the accident. Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) retired with a clutch failure. Alex Rins (Yamaha) crashed in turn 1.
After qualifying, two riders were penalized and moved back two positions on the grid for the Grand Prix. Marini had gone off the gas before turn 12, Bezzecchi directly behind him as well.
Marc Marquez was behind him on a flying lap and was hindered as a result. Both Italians received penalties for this situation. Bezzecchi will start fourth on Sunday and Marini eleventh.
