Franco Morbidelli tops the FP1 session in Austin! Behind him are Miller and M. Marquez (who crashed), while Bagnaia finishes 6th.
Unexpected rain hits Austin: a surprising turn of events at the Circuit of the Americas, a location not particularly known for wet conditions (though the entire weekend is expected to be rainy). And as always, wet conditions bring unexpected results: here are the standings from the first MotoGP FP1 session in Texas, ahead of the pre-qualifying session at 21:00.
Fastest time goes to Franco Morbidelli: the VR46 rider, set to debut a special livery tomorrow, clocked a superb 2:12.531 lap, just ahead of an excellent Jack Miller by less than a tenth.
However, the big headline of the session is Marc Marquez’s crash: the Spanish rider suffered a fairly violent highside between Turns 2 and 3, but fortunately, the new Ducati star emerged unscathed. Bezzecchi also went down, while Morbidelli managed to save his GP24 in the “Snake” section after a rear-end slide.
VIDEO – MARQUEZ CRASHES IN FP1
Despite the incident, Marquez managed to get back on track and secured the third-best time. Behind him are Zarco, Acosta, and Bagnaia in sixth place.
Rounding out the top 10 are Alex Marquez, Vinales, Binder, and, in a stunning performance, Augusto Fernandez, who was called up at the last minute by Trackhouse to replace Oliveira.
MotoGP in Austin: Next Session
Now, all eyes are on the pre-qualifying session at 21:00 (afternoon in the U.S.), which will deliver the first key results of the weekend, determining the top 10 riders who will advance directly to Q2.
Photo: MotoGP
