Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi reclaimed the top spot in the 2026 MotoGP standings with a convincing victory at the United States Grand Prix.
The 27-year-old made a brilliant start from fourth place on the grid and passed early leader Pedro Acosta on the first lap, securing his fifth consecutive victory.
Jorge Martin moved up from seventh to complete a one-two for Aprilia, adding a podium finish to his sprint victory on Saturday, while Acosta finished third for KTM.
At the start, Acosta took the lead again from second, with the Aprilia duo of Bezzecchi and Martin taking second and third, while pole-sitter Fabio Di Giannantonio dropped to fourth.
Bezzecchi immediately began to put pressure on Acosta, taking a shorter line at Turn 11 towards the back straight. However, there was drama when he touched Acosta on the exit of the corner, risking to throw the Spaniard off.
Both drivers managed to stay on track, with Bezzecchi now in the lead, followed by Acosta and Martin in third place.
In the following stage, the three drivers moved very close together, with Acosta continuing to apply pressure despite having a less competitive engine.
However, the Italian increased the pace on the sixth lap of 20, creating an advantage of eight tenths, which he later extended to over a second.
Martin initially stayed close to the two leaders, but was seriously endangered at the first corner at the start of lap seven, losing ground and being closed in on by Di Giannantonio.
However, the 2024 champion gradually recovered and moved into second place when Acosta went off the ideal line at the same corner on lap 14.
By the end of the race, Martin was close to winning, closing the gap to less than a second. But Bezzecchi reacted and finished the race with a two-second advantage.
With this result, Bezzecchi joined an elite group of riders who have won five consecutive races, also becoming the first in the modern era to achieve this feat while leading every lap of the race.
Martin continued his good form to hold on to second place, while Acosta was once again the only one to resist the Aprilia, finishing third.
Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura was close to the podium, but a technical problem with five laps to go put him out of contention for the podium, making way for Di Giannantonio in fourth.
Marc Marquez then held off a late challenge from Enea Bastianini to finish in the top five in Austin.
The seven-time world champion spent the first half of the race battling with Di Giannantonio and Joan Mir before dropping to 11th after a long-lap penalty for a sprint incident.
He gradually recovered and overtook Bagnaia with three laps to go to secure a crucial points finish in fifth.
Bastianini finished sixth, ahead of Alex Marquez, while Luca Marini was the best Honda in ninth, after passing a struggling Bagnaia on the final lap.
Fermin Aldeguer was 11th, with Brad Binder, Diogo Moreira and Franco Morbidelli finishing behind him in 12th, 13th and 14th.
Toprak Razgatlioglu scored his first MotoGP point by finishing 15th, ahead of his Yamaha teammates: Fabio Quartararo, Jack Miller and two-time Austin winner Alex Rins./BuzPost/
