What began as a rainy race weekend at the Circuit of Americas morphed into an insightful, albeit chaotic event for MotoGP. Perhaps all set off on race day by Marc Marquez's sudden sprint off of the grid, which led to the rest of the field abandoning their bikes, aborting the start, and causing a 10-minute delay as everyone rethought their tyre strategy for the race. What it did provide was an expansive look of what to look forward to going into the rest of 2025, a surprising leader in the World Championship points [Alex Marquez], and a brief note to all that our heroes can't win it all, every time.
With that in mind, this week's Winners and Losers from the Americas GP:
Winner: Honda
Though Johann Zarco made headlines in Argentina with his front-row start aboard the LCR entry, Austin was more encouraging for Honda as a whole. In America, the factory team came to the party, with the hitherto anonymous Luca Marini qualifying seventh and Joan Mir lining up eighth.
Marini duly delivered two eighth places. While Mir fell off in both sprint and grand prix, citing the difficulties caused by a lack of straightline speed in racing situations, he proved his fundamental pace with the fourth-fastest lap in the sprint. He will be eyeing Jerez in two races as a perfect circuit for Honda, given the Spanish track’s lack of straights.
Although Zarco battled this weekend and had a couple of falls of his own, the Frenchman remained exceedingly upbeat after the grand prix, pointing to a “huge step forward” on Sunday and rejoiced in the fact that changing the setup had actually made a difference. It bodes well for a manufacturer no amount of bike tweaks could help last year.
Loser: KTM
True, Maverick Viñales made his first 2025 appearances inside the top 10 following his move to Tech3 — but the Spaniard is an Austin specialist. Although he was positive about progress with the bike, there’s a suspicion that his pop up the order was rider-related.
And yes, Vinales’s team-mate Enea Bastianini improved his qualifying and picked up a grand prix seventh place he would have snatched with both hands before the weekend. But that race result was helped along by the heavy attrition: this would not have been a top 10 otherwise.
Look past these little wins and KTM is battling more than ever. Brad Binder still hasn’t qualified in the top 10 this year. Pedro Acosta managed a quick lap (as usual) to line up fourth, but his races were a disaster. All the riders are complaining about the bike’s race-ruining vibration issue, which led Vinales to actually park it on Saturday.
When the factory Hondas and the KTMs were battling each other in a blaze of red and orange during the sprint — the Austrian machines have typically been well ahead in the last couple of seasons — it was hard not to see the symbolism of one team on the up and one going backwards.
Winner: Jack Miller
One man to appear rejuvenated by taking his leave of KTM is Jack Miller. After a promising outing in the dry in Thailand, the Aussie enjoyed the chance to show off his renowned mixed-weather skills in Austin.
The Pramac Yamaha rider excelled on slicks during the middle part of Friday’s drying Practice session, topping the timesheets while most others hadn’t even changed to dry tyres yet. The track was a lot drier by the end of the session, levelling the playing field, but he kept enough momentum to make it into Q2 and ultimately qualify ninth.
A bad start ruined his sprint, but Miller would have been relishing a wet/dry GP on Sunday. Things looked promising on the grid, but the track dried too fast for him to steal the show. Still, he rode a steady race behind Franco Morbidelli and kept it on the road where others didn’t. His fifth place was a first top 10 of the season and saw the Queenslander board his flight out of Texas with a smile.
Loser: Marc Marquez
Very few would have put any money on Marc Marquez being listed a ‘loser’ after he arrived at his favourite circuit with a perfect 2025 record. Even fewer would have done so after his pole position and sprint victory. But then came Sunday.
His crash in the Americas GP was costly enough at this early stage of the season for him to lose the lead of the world championship. The margin to his brother Alex is only one point, but the Spaniard has lost his winning momentum.
Then there was a third little loss: his perfect record of staying on the bike. That already slipped away on Friday, when he fell in a wet FP1. In the sprint, too, he was out of the seat in one extremely hairy moment on the first lap. All told, Texas gave Marquez a little reminder that even the factory Ducati has limits – and his rivals a first little helping of hope.
One final thing that might be slipping away from Marc: his COTA aura. Six of his seven wins at the track were pre-pandemic.Yes, 2020 was cancelled and Marc’s injuries have played a role, but since his 2018 win in Texas, he has won only the 2021 edition. He crashed out in 2019, 2024 and now 2025. Is it time to stop wheeling out that ‘King of COTA’ line?
Winner: Fabio Quartararo
Qualifying was nothing out of the ordinary for the Frenchman, who lined up 11th after having to squeeze through Q1. His 10th place in the grand prix was also little to write home about. But the factory Yamaha rider certainly impressed in the sprint.
The 2021 world champion wowed onlookers in his memorable battle with the far more user-friendly VR46 Ducatis of Franco Morbidelli and Fabio di Giannantonio. He ultimately had to cede to the Italians after running fourth early on, but this was a sixth place that lifted Fabio’s spirits in his ongoing battle with the Yamaha.
Loser: Marco Bezzecchi
Friday was a horror show for Bezzecchi, who suffered technical issues (along with other Aprilia riders) on both bikes in the morning. On one of the rare occasions when he was able to run at speed, he crashed. That led to qualifying 13th and missing out on points in the sprint race.
Bezzecchi then lost the bike in the warm-up session as he continued trying to make up for lost time and get his weekend back on track. The grand prix on Sunday did reward him with a sixth place, though attrition played its part. He set the sixth-fastest race lap, but that’s another reason why Bezzecchi will be reflecting on what might have been had Friday gone to plan.
Winner: Fabio di Giannantonio
They’ve been scripting things well over at VR46. After Morbidelli made his long-awaited return to the podium in the Argentina GP, his team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio got his turn in the USA. Third place earned him his first trip there since winning in Qatar in 2023 — and in fact only the third of his career.
Remember that di Giannantonio was riding with a still-significant injury and produced this performance at possibly the most physically demanding circuit on the schedule. He spoke after the race of being in major pain during the grand prix.
What also made Sunday a little sweeter for di Giannantonio was beating Morbidelli fair and square. There had been some tension between the two riders following the sprint, during which di Giannantonio felt he’d been compromised by his team-mate for the second weekend in a row. They managed to stay out of each other’s way on Sunday — with Morbidelli coming home a safe distance behind Fabio.
Winner: Fermin Aldeguer
Until Texas, Gresini Ducati’s rookie, Fermin Aldeguer, had been learning the ropes in team-mate Alex Marquez’s shadow. Then, at a track where few would expect a MotoGP newbie to find a breakthrough, the Spaniard wormed his way straight into Q2. That this effort came on a drying circuit in Practice spoke volumes for his riding skill.
Those paying attention in the sprint would have noticed Aldeguer’s impressive comeback ride, which followed him being pushed to the back of the field when he got caught up in the hectic first-lap action. 11th place was a great result under the circumstances, and eighth-fastest lap hinted at what might have been in the hot conditions.
On Sunday, in entirely different weather, Aldeguer actually went forward from his starting position of 12th. He was eighth by lap three and showed no fear for the more experienced names around him. In the closing laps, he found some incredible speed – which he put down to what he learned about the bike during the course of the race – and fought his way up to fifth. Shortly after taking the spot from Jack Miller, however, he fell. But setting the second-fastest lap of the race (only a tenth off Marc Marquez!) just before the crash was another of the many positives he can take from his third MotoGP weekend.
Winner: Ai Ogura
Ai Ogura goes down as a winner primarily for the massive progress he made over the weekend on what was also his first MotoGP visit to COTA. He was completely lost on Friday morning, several seconds off the pace and battling Aprilia’s temperature-related technical problems. On Saturday morning, in FP2, he also crashed. Yet amongst these travails was the occasional leap in performance that showed he was learning in chunks.
Still, he hadn’t quite found his form by the time qualifying came around, and the rookie who had wowed Thailand with fifth on the grid could only produce 18th. In the sprint, however, Ogura also displayed great in-race learning strides in the manner of Aldeguer on Sunday. He snatched the last point with ninth in the sprint
He repeated the result for seven more points in the grand prix on Sunday, although he suggested the learning curve had already flattened by then and that the attrition up ahead was the main factor here. Still, Ogura was one of the three riders to have fitted slicks on the grid before the start was called off. What might have been possible had penalties been issued to those who ran off to the pits?
