Our live coverage ends here, dear friends of FormulaPassion.it. The appointment is at 21.00, when the Qualifying sessions will take place that will define the first 10 qualified for tomorrow’s Q2.
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Some end-of-session reflections: Marc Marquez, despite the scare, managed to limit the damage and return to being competitive. But it’s clear that he’s not at 100% condition and Ducati also appears to be struggling. Excellent signals instead coming from Aprilia, especially on race pace with both Bezzecchi and Martin. The best time of the day, however, goes to Pedro Acosta, once again capable of making an abyssal difference compared to KTM’s difficulties, which has introduced some improvements even in America.
17.36 – FP1 session closes, here’s the results board:
17.35 – Checkered flag waved now! Last lap for the riders who had crossed the finish line previously.
17.34 – After the previous highs, Bagnaia has slipped back: the Italian is 11th, but has very old tires at this moment.
17.33 – Marc Marquez seems to have regained confidence. 2:02.093 his time and he rises to fourth place behind Acosta, Di Giannantonio and a fantastic Martin, who set his time with tires 13 laps old.
17.32 – Acosta back in command! 2:01.715 for the Spanish KTM rider who takes back the best time.
17.31 – Marc Marquez at the finish line: he’s in P11 with a time of 2:02.656. On race pace instead very encouraging signals are coming from Martin and Bezzecchi; Aprilia on top.
17.30 – Acosta and Alex Marquez return, who are now respectively in P4 and P5.
17.29 – Slow laps for Marc Marquez at the moment.
17.27 – The standings are reshuffled: Martin rises to P2 118 thousandths behind Di Giannantonio. In top-5 at the moment also Fernandez, Marini and Ogura.
17.26 – Splendid lap by Di Giannantonio! 2:01.909 and he goes to the top beating Fernandez by exactly half a second.
17.25 – Here comes Marc Marquez back on track after his very bad crash at turn 10. The cameras are dwelling on him a lot.
17.24 – Great lap by Raul Fernandez, who confirms Aprilia’s excellent moment: 2:02.409 and jumps to the top of the standings.
17.22 – Marquez is ready to get back in the saddle. Taped up but also very focused.
17.20 – This is the standings situation after the end of the second run for all riders:
17.17 – Bagnaia at the finish line: best time in 2:02.546, 49 thousandths better than Acosta’s previous time.
17.16 – Tardozzi at the Sky microphones: “Marquez has abrasion on his right arm and another abrasion on the palm of his left hand. Doctor Charte confirmed to us that he is in condition to return to the track”.
17.15 – Quartararo at the finish line: slight step forward for the Frenchman who rises to P15 with a time of 2:03.315
17.14 – Mechanics working on Marc Marquez’s second bike. The reigning world champion could return to the track shortly.
17.13 – Great balance at the top at this moment: the first eight are gathered in just 174 thousandths.
17.12 – Slight step forward for Bagnaia: now he’s risen to sixth position with a time of 2:02.766.
17.11 – Updates on Marquez: the rider is currently being checked by Doctor Charte and the MotoGP medical staff.
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17.10 – Raul Fernandez in P6: Aprilia dominant so far, four bikes in the top eight positions for the Noale house.
17.08 – The standings situation is evolving: Acosta still leader, but Ogura (now 3rd) and Martin (4th) have improved.
17.06 – Marc Marquez is back at the pits. The rider seems okay, although clearly he was ‘shaken’ by the accident. We’ll see if he decides to return to the track and – if so – when.
👀 @marcmarquez93 is on his way back though #USGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/mpmRdVF1Z3
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 27, 2026
17.04 – Riders back on track now for the second run. This is the standings at the moment:
17.01 – These are the images of Marquez’s crash. Understandably the broadcast ‘cut’ the moment of impact with the barrier.
The front just went for @marcmarquez93 and that was a FAST one 👀#USGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/i0EtTlOKuW
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 27, 2026
17.00 – Red flag removed. It had been put up to give time to the marshals to set up the air-fence
16.59 – Marquez is heading back to the pits on a scooter, accompanied by Poggiali. He’s holding his right hand.
16.58 – Red flag!
16.57 – Attention! Possibly a turning point of the weekend, in the negative: very bad crash by Marc Marquez at turn 10. Rider relatively okay, in the sense that he got up on his own after remaining on the ground on all fours for several seconds.
RED FLAG 🚩@marcmarquez93 has crashed at Turn 10 #USGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/xoILJ1L3gu
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 27, 2026
16.53 – Third fast lap completed and at the top there’s a new name: that of Pedro Acosta who takes command in 2:02.595. Behind the ‘Shark’ appear Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia and Bezzecchi. P5 for Alex Marquez, Marc instead is only 13th at the moment.
16.51 – The second fast lap of the first run closes: Bezzecchi takes command in 2:03.014, then Di Giannantonio and Bagnaia who confirm themselves quite effective in this opening. Fourth is Martin, while the Marquez brothers are for now in P7 and P8.
16.49 – The first round of fast laps is completed. Fabio Di Giannantonio starts well right away: his the best time in 2:04.905. But he’s overtaken by Pecco Bagnaia who closes in 2:04.456. Top-4 all Italian, with Marini third and Bezzecchi fourth.
16.45 – Green flag! FP1 at Austin begins.
16.40 – Marc Marquez is rightfully considered by everyone the great favorite of this weekend, by virtue of his winning record at COTA. However, there is a statistical fact that deserves to be mentioned: in the last two editions, when he raced on the Ducati, the #93 never managed to finish Sunday’s race.
16.35 – The Moto2 FP1 session is now concluding. In 10 minutes it will be MotoGP’s turn. Track conditions at the moment ideal: 23°C air temperature, 31°C asphalt temperature.
16.30 – We start our coverage with what is the schedule for the day for the premier class:
- 16:45-17:30 MotoGP Free Practice 1
- 21:00-22:00 MotoGP Qualifying
Good afternoon dear readers of FormulaPassion.it and welcome back to the appointment dedicated to the live coverage of the first free practice session and the Qualifying (the pre-qualifiers, basically) of the Americas GP.
MotoGP arrives at Austin after the embarrassing – from an organizational and safety point of view – Goiania weekend. This time everything is expected to go smoothly since the COTA track has been on the calendar since 2013.
From a competitive point of view instead, eyes on the Aprilia-Ducati battle: will Bezzecchi and Martin be able to beat Marc Marquez even on one of the tracks that helped build the legend of #93? Starting from today we will begin to understand something more.
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