2026 MotoGP Round 3 Grand Prix of the Americas qualifying: Di Giannantonio takes record pole, Márquez only sixth

       MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas qualifying concluded at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas on 28 March 2026 local time (29 March in Beijing). VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio delivered a superb late Q2 lap of 2:00.136 to take pole for the second consecutive round and set a new circuit record. He beat runner-up Marco Bezzecchi by just 0.193 seconds, while KTM’s Pedro Acosta secured the final front-row position. Marc Márquez, known as the ‘King of COTA’, was affected by on-track interference and finished only sixth.

       The circuit’s fast corners and repeated elevation changes place exceptional demands on precision and grip. In Q1, Gresini’s Fermín Aldeguer advanced with a 2:00.977, followed by factory Honda rider Joan Mir, 0.233 seconds behind despite grip problems. Trackhouse’s Raúl Fernández missed Q2 by just 0.018 seconds, exiting the first qualifying session for the second consecutive round. Rookie Diogo Moreira beat teammate Johann Zarco and qualified fourteenth overall.

       The battle intensified in Q2. Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia set a 2:00.815 in the opening five minutes, breaking Maverick Viñales’s circuit record and taking the provisional lead. Mir then produced a surprise on his grip-troubled Honda RC213V, going almost a quarter of a second faster to top the times. Reigning champion Márquez suffered a setback, abandoning a flying lap while avoiding the slower Bezzecchi at the end of the back straight. He was only tenth in the first half of the session, and the avoidance incident was investigated.

       Times continued to improve as riders fitted fresh soft tyres for their final attacks. Bezzecchi first displaced Mir with a 2:00.329, but Di Giannantonio responded with a 2:00.136 one minute before Q2 ended, lowering the circuit benchmark by roughly seven tenths to secure pole. It was the third pole of his career, following Mugello in 2022 and Brazil the previous weekend, and his second of the season.

       Championship leader Bezzecchi held second, while Acosta improved at the end to claim the final front-row spot for KTM. Bagnaia’s late improvement placed him fourth, and Mir took fifth in a strong sign of recovery. Márquez pushed to catch up but finished only sixth, unable to reproduce his best form at a circuit where he had enjoyed great success.

       Aprilia’s Jorge Martín qualified seventh, Álex Márquez eighth, and Luca Marini and Aldeguer ninth and tenth respectively, placing them in the top ten qualifying positions. Ai Ogura was only eleventh after two crashes in the second free practice session before qualifying disrupted his form. Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Enea Bastianini was twelfth. Márquez abandoned his final flying lap after an incident in which Bastianini had to take avoiding action.

       Yamaha’s struggles continued. Fabio Quartararo suffered a slow-speed crash at Turn 15 on his first lap and qualified only sixteenth. Álex Rins, a two-time winner at Austin, was last. Pramac riders Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Jack Miller were seventeenth and nineteenth, while VR46’s Franco Morbidelli finished twentieth, unable to show competitive pace.