{"id":574881,"date":"2026-03-30T20:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574881\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:42:09","slug":"bastianini-zarco-clash-airbag-drama-and-great-to-watch-marquez-battle-at-us-motogp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574881\/","title":{"rendered":"Bastianini: Zarco clash, airbag drama and \u201cgreat to watch\u201d Marquez battle at US MotoGP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enea Bastianini\u2019s US MotoGP race began with some \u201ccritical\u201d opening laps and ended in a close duel with Marc Marquez.<\/p>\n

The Tech3 KTM<\/a> rider – promoted to a Sprint rostrum by Pedro Acosta\u2019s tyre pressure penalty – survived an early rear slide in the GP, followed by an airbag-deploying clash with Johann Zarco<\/a>, who crashed in the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been the best weekend for a long time, but the first laps were critical – many things happened!\u201d Bastianini said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Turn 3, I lost the rear, then in Turn 7, after contact with Johann, my airbag exploded, and I did a half lap with that deployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the rest of the race was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"US <\/p>\n

US MotoGP lap times: The top 6 rides.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Peter McLaren<\/p>\n

The Italian set a pace comparable with the race leaders as he climbed steadily to eighth.<\/p>\n

The closing stages then saw Bastianini catch a group of riders, initially led by Francesco Bagnaia, fighting over fifth.<\/p>\n

Bastianini and Marquez traded places behind Bagnaia before both overtook the fading factory Ducati.<\/p>\n

The Beast then hounded Marquez for the final laps but finished just 0.143s behind the reigning world champion at the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the end, I caught Marc, and it was a hard fight because he was pushing a lot in the final laps,\u201d Bastianini recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to get closer out of Turn 11 [onto the back straight] to have a chance into Turn 12, but we were missing a bit of acceleration.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, we were competitive under braking and that is a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bastianini came into the COTA weekend with a best result of just twelfth in the previous events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can be happy after a disaster like the first two Grand Prix,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

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\u201cQualifying made the race more difficult, but it is good to be back fighting close to the front again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marc <\/p>\n

Marc Marquez, Enea Bastianini, 2026 US MotoGP.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat to watch\u201d<\/p>\n

Team manager Nicolas Goyon described Bastianini\u2019s performances as a relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team leaves with smiles on our faces, which is a real relief after two complicated races,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to congratulate Enea on the job he has done all weekend. It was great to see him enjoying the bike, building confidence, and delivering a strong race.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe improved his pace and worked his way into the fight with Pecco and Marc Marquez, which was great to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cP3 in the Sprint and P6 in the main race are positive results for us as we leave Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have a break, which will give Maverick [Vinales] time to recover from his shoulder surgery, and we hope to be back in great shape in Jerez.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vinales withdrew from COTA and will require surgery for a loose screw in the shoulder he damaged at last July\u2019s German MotoGP.<\/p>\n

Pedro Acosta finished as the top KTM in third on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enea Bastianini\u2019s US MotoGP race began with some \u201ccritical\u201d opening laps and ended in a close duel with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,101326,6399,806,805,803,804,26895,85],"class_list":["post-574881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-enea-bastianini","tag-ktm","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-red-bull-ktm-tech3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}