MotoGP Austin, Practice results: Marquez steals the show, but what a performance from Ogura! Bastianini also through to Q2

In Texas, pre-qualifying rewards Marquez, who narrowly precedes a fantastic Ogura: the final standings from a session with several crashes.

MotoGP Friday at COTA ends with Marc Marquez topping pre-qualifying. The Ducati Lenovo Team rider was the fastest, setting the best time of 2'00"927, just 53 thousandths ahead of Ai Ogura on the Trackhouse Aprilia. In third place is another Desmosedici GP26, Fabio Di Giannantonio of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 team. The top three riders in the Practice standings are covered by 187 thousandths.

In the first minutes of the session, several riders went down, likely due to higher temperatures to manage with the soft tire. The first were Di Giannantonio (Turn 11) and Martin (Turn 12), followed by Bastianini (Turn 12) and Morbidelli (Turn 1). At Turn 18, first Acosta and then Ogura crashed. The seventh to go down was Razgatlioglu (Turn 11), while closely following Bezzecchi. After not even half an hour of Practice, Alex Marquez also slid off (Turn 1). Towards the end, a small tumble for Binder as well in sector 1.

In addition to the Marquez-Ogura-Di Giannantonio trio, Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez, Pedro Acosta, Jorge Martin, Pecco Bagnaia, Luca Marini, and Enea Bastianini are also in the top 10 and will therefore start directly in Q2 of Saturday’s Qualifying. All the others will start from Q1 and will try to claim the two spots up for grabs for Q2. It’s always important to start as far forward as possible, so each team will try to analyze the data well to make improvements ahead of Qualifying.

There will be a great battle at COTA. It’s easy to point to Marc Marquez as the favorite for pole position, but surprises cannot be ruled out. Don’t forget there will also be one last free practice session to exploit in order to make progress both for Qualifying and with an eye on the Sprint. It’s set to be a great MotoGP Saturday. Unfortunately, as we have already written, Maverick Vinales will not be there. The KTM Tech3 team rider is still feeling pain in the shoulder operated on in 2025 and has withdrawn from the United States Grand Prix: he will undergo a new operation next Tuesday in Italy.