Starting from sixth on the grid, Marc Marquez immediately tried to mount a comeback with the goal of winning the Sprint Race, but instead, the first points-scoring race of the Austin weekend ended in a complete shutout for the world champion. In this case, his excessive eagerness didn’t pay off, as after losing control of his Ducati during the first lap, he crashed, taking Di Giannantonio down with him.
Marc ran into Diggia in the Austin press room while waiting for his press conference and Fabio was waiting to speak with the TV crews, and he apologized.
“It was a tough day,” he admitted. “In the Sprint, Fabio had just passed me, and I was in fourth place when I made a mistake braking into Turn 12. I was behind three riders; I tried to stop the bike as best I could, but I didn’t account for the slipstream effect, so I tried to swerve wide to avoid hitting Diggia, but there wasn’t enough room because he was, of course, following the correct line. At that point, I let my GP26 take the corner on the inside to avoid the collision, but instead, unfortunately, a bump caused me to lose the front end. Crashing always hurts, but when you ruin an opponent’s race, it’s even worse.”
The reigning champion’s difficulties had already begun during qualifying, however. “On this track, you do two runs of two time attacks each, but I made a mistake in the first ones, and in the third, I didn’t expect a rider to come flying by. I got angry because he braked way too early on the entry, and I almost hit him. Other than that, in Q2 I did the best I could. In the first sector, I was losing two or three tenths, and in MotoGP, that counts,” he said.
Interviewed before the Long Lap Penalty to be served in the GP was officially confirmed, the Cervera ace made no secret of the fact that he expected the penalty, which was eventually imposed.
“I think they’ll give it to me. I don’t know yet, but I expect it. Personally, I always try to be fair; today I made a mistake, and it’s only right that I receive a penalty to serve tomorrow,” he said before turning to his ambitions—now significantly scaled back—for Sunday afternoon. “I’ll race in survival mode, aiming only to finish the race and give 100%, ” he declared.
When asked about the technical updates brought by Ducati, such as the tail and rear wings, the Spaniard said: “Everything helps. Of course, you can’t expect to gain three-tenths of a second per lap overnight, but if it can increase stability, that’s a plus—and in fact, we’ve improved a bit there.”
Finally, to wrap up, a thought on Jorge Martin, fresh off a 2025 season to forget and now a winner. “Coming off two very long breaks due to injuries , he simply needed time. He had already demonstrated his talent at Ducati, and at Aprilia he’s going very fast. Bit by bit, he’ll get faster and faster as he gains more confidence,” was his take on his compatriot.