Marc Marquez Leads Free Practice at COTA, Crash in FP1 Doesn’t Stop Him
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| Marc Marquez leads FP2 at US GP after FP1 crash. Read the latest practice results, crashes, and top MotoGP riders at COTA. |
MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez shook things up at the United States Grand Prix (COTA). Despite a terrifying crash in FP1, the Ducati factory rider bounced back to finish the day fastest in free practice.
On Friday morning, Marquez suffered a highside at 190 km/h, but thankfully walked away with only a bruised hand. The start of the practice session was chaotic, as six of his first timed laps were wiped out due to yellow flags. However, Marquez showed strong pace on the GP26, clocking 2m00.927s on soft tires in the final minutes to top the timesheets.
The one-hour session saw multiple crashes: Fabio Di Giannantonio, Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini, Franco Morbidelli, Pedro Acosta, and Ai Ogura all went down in the first 10 minutes. By the afternoon, a total of nine riders had crashed as track temperatures soared at COTA.
Ogura from Trackhouse Aprilia was investigated for crashing under yellow flags shortly after Acosta went down at Turn 18, but no further action was taken. Ogura went on to finish second with 2m00.980s, while VR46’s Di Giannantonio completed the top three.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi finished fourth on the factory Aprilia, and Alex Marquez recovered from a crash to claim fifth on the Gresini Ducati. Acosta ended up sixth, followed by Jorge Martin in seventh. Pecco Bagnaia initially struggled to make the Q2 cutoff but managed 2m01.371s to finish eighth.
Honda’s Luca Marini had a close call during his final lap, while Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini secured ninth, being the only representative after Maverick Vinales withdrew due to a shoulder injury.
Joan Mir narrowly missed Q2, facing Q1 alongside Fermin Aldeguer and Raul Fernandez. Fabio Quartararo was the fastest Yamaha in 15th, 1.1 seconds off the pace, while teammate Alex Rins, a previous COTA winner, trailed by 2.1 seconds. Pramac’s Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed during practice and finished 18th, 1.446 seconds behind.
This chaotic session reinforced that MotoGP is always full of drama—even for a world champion like Marc Marquez. With such a strong FP2 pace, he’s ready to battle for pole position and podium at COTA.
