There were many expectations and many questions on the table before the United States GP. Could Bezzecchi continue his winning streak? Would the Ducati turn around the situation at the beginning of the season? On a track where Márquez has been so competitive, would he put the early season problems behind him? And all of them have been answered bluntly in three days, where a path has been marked that could be a guideline for the rest of the year.
And during the United States GP we have once again seen a dominant Aprilia, a Ducati in tow, a KTM that only shines in the hands of Acosta, a Honda that is getting closer and a Yamaha that continues trying. But, above all, we have seen a Marco Bezzecchi who only has one rival: Marco Bezzecchi.
Martín shines in a Sprint that Bezzecchi let slip away
It seems that the Sprint Race is resisting Bezzecchi. Italian is fast, efficient, safe… on Sundays. But Saturdays are the great outstanding debt he has at the moment. It seemed that Bagnaia was going to take advantage of Marco’s problems on Saturday, but while the Ducati Italian remained in front, the Aprilia Italian was cutting back, coming back… until, being close to Pecco, he crashed again.
A stick for Marco that left Jorge Martín, who came out better and was rolling strongly in second position. Everything seemed ready for Bagnaia to achieve victory, but in the last lap, when braking on the back straight, Martín went all out, he made one of those blockpasses that border on the illegal, but both drivers stayed on the track, Jorge overtook Pecco and thus they crossed the finish line of the Sprint Race of the 2026 United States GP. Behind, Pedro Acosta who finished third, but who was later penalized for not complying with the pressure rule.
That third place ended up being “inherited” by Enea Bastianini, who at COTA has been more competitive than usual. Álex Márquez, Luca Marini, Ai Ogura and Raúl Fernández occupied fourth to seventh place, with Acosta finally eighth and Johann Zarco ninth.
Even so, nothing mentioned was as controversial as the clash between Marc Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio at turn 12 during the first lap. The Spaniard, as he commented, was caught in the aspirations of the motorcycles in front of him, he could not stop the motorcycle in time, he lengthened his line, made Fabio have to lengthen his and, in the end, he ended up losing the front end to take the Italian in front of him once on the ground. An action that conditioned both of their weekends, especially that of Marc who did not seem comfortable in the first laps.
TO THE FLOOR MARC MÁRQUEZ… AND WITH HIM DI GIANNANTONIO! 🤯
The ’93’ crashed with his official Ducati… and his motorcycle took Fabio’s ahead of him 😯 #USGP 🇺🇸 #MotoGP 🏁
🔗 https://t.co/uvw7PDkVUh pic.twitter.com/ZKult1THLw
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) March 28, 2026
Bezzecchi achieves his fifth consecutive GP in the United States and the record for consecutive laps led
After the fiasco on Saturday, Bezzecchi went out to redeem himself on Sunday and it only took 11 corners to get into first position, to the detriment of Pedro Acosta who is getting oil from his KTM, and Fabio Di Giannantonio who saw how he could not maintain the first place that the pole gave him.
Marco began to impose his pace from the first moment and continued with the streak of led laps to finish, at the end of the GP, shattering the record held by Jorge Lorenzo since 2015, which was 103. After leading all the laps of the United States GP, Marco has raised the number to 121, which means that since the 2025 Malaysian GP started, no other driver has led a GP.
The contact between Bez and The Shark was MASSIVE 💥#USGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/1bPOTyk1Yk
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 29, 2026
Of course, beyond these numbers, the United States GP was by no means a walk for Marco. Firstly, because at the moment he became the leader, he made a contact with Acosta that almost took both of them to the ground. And then because Acosta himself continued to push until six laps from the end it was Jorge Martín who took over from the Murcian. Jorge managed to cut time on his teammate, who knew how to react and score the victory ahead of a great Martín, who crossed the finish line second.
After Saturday’s disappointment, Acosta achieved third position, confirming his great form. Fabio Di Giannantonio finished at the gates of the podium, the best Ducati again, and without being able to fight for the podium at any time despite starting from the first position. After the Italian and despite losing more than 3 seconds in the “long lap” that was imposed on him after the accident on Saturday, Marc Márquez, who suffered a lot at the start of the race, ended up running in the leading times. The Spaniard is surely one of the drivers who will best benefit from the break that will now come with the postponement of the Qatar GP.
Enea Bastianini, again competitive, finished sixth with Álex Márquez seventh, Raúl Fernández eighth, Luca Marini ninth and Pecco Bagnaia closing the top 10 after losing pace in the final part of the race. It should be mentioned that Ai Ogura was aiming for the podium or, at least, to fight for it when his Aprilia said enough was enough. In fact, the Japanese had risen to fourth position, demonstrating, once again, the great competitiveness of the RS-GP.
NO WAY
Heartbreak for @aiogura79 after a problem on the Aprilia 😔#USGP 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/aqqY6nlWx3
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 29, 2026
And while Aprilia dominates, Ducati suffers and KTM is only really fast in the hands of Acosta, in addition to adding the loss due to a relapse of his shoulder injury to Maverick Viñales, Honda continues to appear at the top positions. Joan Mir has suffered two falls this weekend, but has been close to the podium positions. What’s more, if he had not fallen in the final part on Saturday, Acosta’s sanction would have made him leave the United States with at least a Sprint medal.
But, again, the one who has suffered the most has been Yamaha. The brand with the three tuning forks continues to work and only one of its drivers finished the United States GP in the points. Toprak Razgatlioglu was the fastest with an M1 to finish fifteenth ahead of Miller, Quartararo and Rins but 25 seconds behind Bezzecchi and more than 10 above the top10. A difficult situation for a winning brand to assimilate.
