MotoGP riders reflect on the weekend that was at COTA

2 weeks ago 11

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Round Three – COTA

Marco Bezzecchi – P1

“Saturday I made a mistake that I should have avoided, but the team was very close to me. Today it was important to ride a good race. I’m extremely happy and thrilled. I have been dreaming about doing well on this track that I’ve always liked for a long time, but I had never managed to finish the way I wanted to until now. Riding such a great race was incredible.”

Jorge Martin – P2

“I am truly happy and extremely grateful to Aprilia. I gave my all and that makes me very proud. Saturday, I achieved the goal of winning the sprint race and I gave it my all on Sunday as well. Marco was incredible: I tried to make up ground behind him, but I was pushing too hard physically and I had to slow down in the last three laps. I have always struggled on this track, so to be on the podium here after my absence last year is fantastic.”

Pedro Acosta – P3

“Not the calmest first lap! I was happy because I needed a new bike after my crash in warm-up and the guys had to rebuild it, so they are the heroes of the weekend. I’m happy, we’re on the podium again and we keep this top five consistency.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P4

“Overall, it was a positive weekend, I’m very happy. We arrived here in Austin and I wasn’t at 100% of my physical condition, so I have to thank Christian, the physiotherapist, and the whole team for the work they did to help me recover with my shoulder. We’ll need to undergo some tests to understand what’s going on, because I struggled a bit physically. Aside from that, we’re in great shape, we’re putting pressure on the front riders even though there’s still a gap at the moment. We need to work both with the team and Ducati to close that gap. We know where we need to improve and we’re already doing it. We’re still missing something in the race. It’s not the result we wanted, because when you’re competing at a high level you always aim for the podium, but today I gave my best and fourth was the maximum we could achieve. There are still many positives to take home: I got pole position and set many fast laps. I’m really happy.”

Marc Márquez – P5

“Unfortunately we paid the price for yesterday’s mistake. An long-lap penalty in MotoGP, especially early on in the race, drops you down into the middle of the field. I wasn’t feeling comfortable in the first laps and I was close to making the same mistake again, but then as the grip faded I started to ride well and have fun, battling with several riders. We must keep in mind that this was only the third Grand Prix of a very long season, but we also have to admit that Bezzecchi, right now, is really fast. We have to keep inching closer to the front and focus on the small details, as we’re not missing much and I know I can do better than this.”

Enea Bastianini – P6

“I am very happy with this result because it was not an easy race. At the start, I lost the rear in Turn 3 and then, after some contact, the airbag deployed, which made things difficult for a while. After that, I tried to find my pace lap by lap and close the gap to the riders in front. At the end, I caught Marc, and it was a hard fight because he was pushing a lot in the final laps. I tried to get closer out of Turn 11 to have a chance into Turn 12, but we were missing a bit of acceleration. Still, we were competitive under braking and that is a positive. We can be satisfied with this weekend. I made a mistake in Qualifying, which made the race more difficult, but it is good to be back fighting close to the front again. Now we must keep working and continue like this in Europe.”

Alex Marquez – P7

“Today I made a few overtakes, so I’m a bit more satisfied compared to yesterday. It was the result I expected today; we didn’t have the pace to be among the best, and starting from the third row I couldn’t ask for more. We still scored points and brought home the best result possible. Right now we need to keep working and continue improving to reach the level of the front runners. With the factory bike it always takes a bit more time to get everything perfectly set up.”

Raul Fernandez – P8

“It didn’t go like we expected but when you are 13th on the grid it’s quite difficult to overtake. We knew that and tried our maximum. The good thing is, the feeling with the bike is back like in Thailand and I felt quite comfortable. But, when we have a long straight, we need to find something extra trying to fight with others. Basically, I think in all areas I feel comfortable, but it’s not quite enough to be with the top group, so we need to find this little extra. During the race I tried to manage the situation, saving the tires for the last part of the race. It was good in terms of race pace, coming from the 13th place. I’m not happy, but to take points in these kinds of races is important. Overall, we did a good weekend but the bad thing was the Qualifying and in Jerez we have to work a bit harder in the Practice to try to be in Q2 straight away.”

Luca Marini – P9

“Today was pretty straight forward, everything came from the start. I was already minus two positions, and I made a really bad start, which is very strange because the starts have been one of our strongest points on the Honda. It’s something we need to check because I lost some positions. The positive is I had some really nice battles further back as it was quite a chaotic race in the opening laps – it was fun, but when I arrived to Fernandez, the pace of everyone was very close. Today the wind changed direction, so it changed our braking points, I focused on hitting my marks and in the last lap I saw Bagnaia was not having an easy time. This race shows that the level of everyone has improved a lot and we still have work to do to break into that top eight.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P10

“Already from the warm up, I didn’t have the same feeling, as I was struggling to carry the same speed into the corners as in previous days. I wasn’t fully comfortable at the start of the race: there was less rear grip, but I tried to manage it. I saw that Diggia was trying to bridge the gap to the leaders and I tried to stay with him, but then the grip got clearly worse. With four laps to go, I tried to push a bit harder in order to defend myself from Marc (Márquez) and Enea (Bastianini), but the final two laps were a nightmare: I had a near crash every time I leaned into the right-hand corners. Unfortunately, we can’t make the bike stop and turn the way we’d like, so we need to continue working in these areas.”

Fermin Aldequer – P11

“It was a complicated weekend and physically tough. In the sprint I already felt the lack of pace on a MotoGP bike, but we scored points and managed to race and finish all the races without crashing. Today was tough, a very long race, but we have to be satisfied. Last year, after three races, we didn’t have this many points.”

Brad Binder – P12

“A really long race and I just couldn’t find any pace all weekend. I had chatter at the beginning and became more and more, especially on full lean. I wasn’t expecting that. Two 12th places is nowhere near good enough. We have some serious homework to do to be better for Jerez.”

Diogo Moreira – P13

“After not being able to understand my feeling in the Sprint due to the early retirement, today’s race was demanding, but I managed to finish, fight, and score points again. The past two weeks have been both enjoyable and challenging at times, but we are doing a good job and continuously improving. Thanks to everyone!”

Franco Morbidelli – P14

“It was a tough weekend. We struggled every day, although less and less each day. Today in the race we managed to score two points: it’s not what we want, but it was important to finish the race to gather information and data. The feeling with the bike wasn’t great this weekend, we didn’t have rear grip. But, we started from further back and improved more and more as the days went on. That’s a positive aspect. Now we have a few weeks off, we’ll keep training and working with the team to do better and return to our best.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu – P15

“Today was a very tough race for everyone, but I was pushing more than 100% because I really wanted to score my first point. In the end, I achieved it, and I‘m very happy. Another positive is that I‘m starting to enjoy riding the bike more during the race, and I‘m learning a lot. I followed Fabio for several laps and was able to understand more about his riding style and the track, which is very important for me at this stage. Race by race, weekend by weekend, we are improving, and that makes me happy. Of course, this is just the beginning — now the goal is to keep learning and start fighting for better results. We now have a few weeks before the next race, so I will continue training and come back ready to keep working, starting from Spain.”

Jack Miller – P16

“Overall, we made some steps forward over the weekend, and I‘m quite happy with the general set-up of the bike. There are still some areas, especially in the DNA of the bike, that we need to keep working on and refining, but for now we‘re doing the best we can with what we have. The important thing is that we‘re starting to understand the bike better and build a clearer direction for the future. We know there‘s still work to do, but we‘re staying focused and continuing to push the project forward. Now I‘m looking forward to getting back to Europe — having races closer together should help us keep the momentum, bring some updates, and continue developing in the right direction.”

Fabio Quartararo – P17

“I didn’t expect the tyres to drop like that at the end. I was managing the tyres, but they still dropped in the last five laps. Yamaha knows what we need and what we need to do. Toprak impressed me all weekend, though. The way he rides is really smooth and very much his style, like we’ve seen in WorldSBK – it’s good.”

Alex Rins – P18

“We had an electronic issue in today’s race that was affecting the bike. In the beginning I was feeling good. I was in front of Miller, and I was going to catch Toprak. But on lap 8, I started to encounter an issue, and that’s it. It was quite tough to manage.”

Ai Ogura – DNF

“For sure me and my team are not happy about what happened in today’s race. I don’t know what to say. I’m just so sorry for the Trackhouse Team, everybody works so hard but, in the end, we couldn’t get what we deserve. My team is still checking what went wrong, this is not my part. At the end of sector one I started to see a warning and after that the bike wasn’t really going anymore. For sure, there’s also a lot of positives to take from this weekend. It was good that we were really, really competitive, especially in the main race.”

Johann Zarco – DNF

“Another rider went to the inside of a rival in Turn 8, and this one had to go wide. I was feeling well and doing a good job, but due to that situation, I had to go in knowing we needed to change direction. He tried to come back, and at the moment of contact my bike fell in Turn 9. It was a racing incident, I don’t complain, these things happen. It was a consequence of what happened at that moment. In any case, I was feeling good and we could have taken a solid result. I decided to continue to gather information, and I was able to be fast even though we were far behind, so it was useful to understand many things.”

Joan Mir – DNF

“A disappointing way to finish a weekend that had a lot of promise. I was in a position yesterday and today to attack, recover a lot on entry and see what was possible. When I am alone I can ride well and fast, in the slipstream with these bikes you have to risk twice as much to make up time. Finally the front went, we need to improve the rear to gain something more on corner exit because this can happen when you are riding the front so hard. I like knowing I have a chance, this is good and we have improved a lot compared to when I first started with Honda and I know that we can keep working together to improve more and more.”

Massimo Rivola – Aprilia Racing CEO

“It was a memorable Sunday for Aprilia Racing, with two truly outstanding riders and an extremely competitive bike. I am very pleased with the demonstration of the synergy between the work carried out in Noale and on track. Clearly, all of this does not reduce our drive — on the contrary, it gives us even more motivation to continue developing the bike. What happened today is something historic, destined to go down in the record books. However, we still need to keep improving, because what happened to Ai Ogura is difficult to accept. I’m very sorry for him, for Justin Marks and Davide Brivio of the Trackhouse MotoGP Team. Today there was the chance to see three Aprilias on the podium and, when these opportunities arise, you have to take them.”

Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Aprilia Team Principal

“To be honest, we are quite disappointed today and try to move on. Ai Ogura was doing a fantastic race! He did the fastest lap of the race, was recovering from P10 at the start and I think we could have gotten onto the podium. It was there but then, unfortunately, there was a problem on the engine and the bike stopped. Ai had to retire and we are so disappointed. I want to apologize to him, he deserved to have a great day today in Austin, the Trackhouse home race. Everything was going to be perfect, but it didn’t end well. The race was fantastic, Ai was very fast and I feel the good days are coming. Raul also had a good recovery, from P13 finishing P8. Even if it was not perfect and he’s not completely satisfied, it is positive this year so far and on a difficult day we still finish in the top 10. I hope this is the trend for the future and when we work well, we can get some really top results. We have a strong bike, a strong team, strong riders and looking forward, after a break, to go to the next race and move on from this disappointment.”

Nicolas Goyon – Red Bull KTM Tech3 Team Manager

“We are very happy with our weekend in Austin. The team leaves with smiles on our faces, which is a real relief after two complicated races. I would like to congratulate Enea on the job he has done all weekend. It was great to see him enjoying the bike, building confidence, and delivering a strong race. He improved his pace and worked his way into the fight with Pecco [Bagnaia] and Marc Márquez, which was great to watch. P3 in the Sprint and P6 in the main race are positive results for us as we leave Austin. We now have a break, which will give Maverick time to recover from his shoulder surgery, and we hope to be back in great shape in Jerez.”

Pablo Nieto – Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Manager

“Overall, Austin was a good weekend for Diggia and we should be happy. We were missing something, because we were fighting for the win with him, and it’s a pity we didn’t make it on the podium. But he took pole position and achieving this kind of result is really great, I believe we’re working very well. Right now, our rivals have made a significant step forward, but we’re very close. Franco struggled a lot during this weekend in the United States, but he improved greatly during the race. If he continues like this, we’ll see him back in the top positions.”

Aki Ajo – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager

“Really good progress for us this weekend at COTA with two riders in the top six, one on the podium of course with Pedro’s fine performance all weekend, and all three in the top twelve. It’s been a solid day of results. This GP seemed a bit more ‘back to normal’ compared to Brazil last week and we evolved areas of the bike and also in our work. We want to give all our riders more positive tools going forwards and it was encouraging to see Enea really on fire here. In Europe we’ll see more about our level and our potential in this category. We also hope to see Maverick back with us.”

Gino Borsoi – Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

“Overall, it was a positive day. Of course, our ambitions are higher than this, but we all needed a bit of a morale boost and we‘re very happy for Toprak to have scored the first of what we hope will be many MotoGP points in his career. Jack also delivered a solid performance, and from the halfway point of the race both riders showed they had the pace to stay close to the top ten. That‘s an important indication for us. This is our starting point, and it‘s from here that we need to continue building. We know it won‘t be easy, but we‘ve already reduced the gap significantly compared to the first races. Now we have to keep our heads down, continue working, and bring the team and our riders closer to where they belong.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

“All in all, it’s been a tough race weekend. I don’t want to say that ‘it’s a GP to forget’ because we need to learn from the difficulties we faced. We knew before coming here that COTA is one of the tracks that highlight our areas of improvement. Following the Sprint and the Race, we now have data with the new bike that we can analyse. While these are not ‘fun’ races for the riders or our team, they are crucial for future bike development. We will use the three weeks leading up to the Spanish GP to regroup and prepare, so we can give it our all again in Jerez.”

Piero Taramasso – Michelin Motorsport Two-Wheel Motorsport Manager

“This weekend in Austin is an excellent demonstration of the relevance of our new 2026 allocation philosophy. We deliberately simplified our offer with two tyre choices at the front and rear, and the results confirm that this approach allows teams and riders to work more efficiently while achieving a very high level of performance. From Friday, we observed that both front tyre options worked well, and that the Soft and Medium rear tyres offered complementary solutions depending on riders’ needs. Conditions varied greatly throughout the weekend, with cool temperatures and wind on Saturday morning, followed by a gradual increase in temperature leading to hotter conditions on Sunday. In this context, the tyres’ ability to deliver consistency and stability was decisive. The widespread choice of the Medium tyre for the race clearly shows that teams found a reliable solution capable of guaranteeing a high level of performance over distance. Finally, the recorded performances speak for themselves: a new qualifying record, a significantly faster Tissot Sprint, and a Grand Prix improved by nearly twenty seconds compared to 2024. This represents an average gain of about one second per lap, which is considerable at this level of competition. It confirms not only the potential of the bikes, but also the key role of tyres in this progression. We are very satisfied with the work accomplished and the data collected, which will be valuable for the rest of the season.”

COTA MotoGP Race Results

Pos

Rider

Bike

Time/Gap

1	M. Bezzecchi	Apr	40m50.653
2	J. Martin	Apr	+2.036
3	P. Acosta	Ktm	+4.497
4	F. Di Giannantonio	Duc	+6.972
5	M. Marquez	Duc	+8.100
6	E. Bastianini	Ktm	+8.243
7	A. Marquez	Duc	+11.253
8	R. Fernandez	Apr	+13.129
9	L. Marini	Hon	+14.471
10	F. Bagnaia	Duc	+14.544
11	F. Aldeguer	Duc	+21.063
12	B. Binder	Ktm	+22.062
13	D. Moreira	Hon	+22.201
14	F. Morbidelli	Duc	+24.371
15	T. Razgatlioglu	Yam	+25.549
16	J. Miller	Yam	+26.309
17	F. Quartararo	Yam	+27.136
18	A. Rins	Yam	+38.701
NC	J. Zarco	Hon	2 Laps
NC	A. Ogura	Apr	5 Laps
NC	J. Mir	Hon	15 Laps

COTA MotoGP Top Speeds

Pos

Rider

Bike

Average

Top

1	M. Marquez	Duc	345.8	348.1
2	E. Bastianini	Ktm	344.9	346.9
3	A. Ogura	Apr	344.7	346.9
4	B. Binder	Ktm	342.6	345.8
5	L. Marini	Hon	342.2	344.7
6	F. Bagnaia	Duc	343.7	344.7
7	A. Marquez	Duc	343.2	344.7
8	A. Rins	Yam	339.8	342.4
9	F. Di Giannantonio	Duc	339.9	341.3
10	F. Aldeguer	Duc	338.7	341.3
11	J. Martin	Apr	340.5	341.3
12	F. Morbidelli	Duc	338.6	340.2
13	J. Miller	Yam	338.7	340.2
14	M. Bezzecchi	Apr	340.2	340.2
15	D. Moreira	Hon	337.6	339.1
16	R. Fernandez	Apr	338.2	339.1
17	J. Mir	Hon	336.7	339.1
18	P. Acosta	Ktm	337.6	339.1
19	J. Zarco	Hon	337.3	338.0
20	T. Razgatlioglu	Yam	336.5	338.0
21	F. Quartararo	Yam	334.6	335.9

2026 MotoGP Championship Standings

Pos

Rider

Points

1	M. Bezzecchi	81
2	J. Martin	77
3	P. Acosta	60
4	F. Di Giannantonio	50
5	M. Marquez	45
6	R. Fernandez	40
7	A. Ogura	37
8	A. Marquez	28
9	F. Bagnaia	25
10	L. Marini	23
11	E. Bastianini	22
12	B. Binder	17
13	F. Morbidelli	14
14	F. Aldeguer	13
15	J. Zarco	13
16	D. Moreira	9
17	F. Quartararo	6
18	A. Rins	3
19	J. Mir	3
20	T. Razgatlioglu	1
21	J. Miller
22	M. Viñales
23	M. Pirro

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