Coming to Austin usually means we are going to have a pretty straightforward weekend. Everyone does practice, qualifies, and Marc Márquez gets pole and wins the race. That was then, but this is now. The 2026 edition of the US Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas was jam-packed with drama from start to finish. And if you’d have put money on the pole sitter and sprint winner, you would be upgrading your flight home. Maybe even to a private jet.
It is hard to know where to start. But perhaps the biggest change was that it was so much cooler on Saturday than expected, and than it had been on Friday. That changed a lot of the calculations. And for one rider, it made the difference between defeat and victory.
The wind caused a lot of problems in the morning. “In free practice I was missing stability on the straight,” Enea Bastianini explained. “The bike was really nervous because of the wind. I closed the throttle many times, also during my lap in qualifying on the straight.”
