Winner: Fabio Di Giannantonio

It was a fascinating weekend for the VR46 team, as they continued on the successful wave from Argentina, where Franco Morbidelli finished on the podium. Yet this time, it was Fabio Di Giannantonio who finished third, which marked his first podium since Qatar 2023, and overall it was his third podium of his career.

But what is even more impressive is that Di Giannantonio did all of this with an injury, which he described after the race as "big pain," making the podium even more remarkable.

Winner: Honda

Honda had a great weekend in Austin. So while Johann Zarco made headlines in Argentina, this time in America, it was the factory HRC Honda. Luca Marini, who had struggled, managed to impress with a solid seventh in qualifying, while his teammate Joan Mir lined up eighth.

Marini held onto this pace, securing two eighth-place finishes. Meanwhile, Mir had a much tougher weekend, as he crashed out both in the sprint and the main race.

Loser: Marc Marquez

If we are gonna be honest, almost no one would have predicted Marquez to be in a loser category on his dominant circuit. And even fewer people would put him there after he took pole position and won the sprint. Yet, then it happened—Sunday.

Marc had a crash that not only cost him positions but also knocked him out of the top of the world championship standings. So now he is behind his brother Alex by just one single point. But what is even worse, he has now lost his momentum.

Two streaks ended this weekend:

1. His perfect record of not crashing this season, which ended in FP1 on Friday.
2. His aura of dominance at COTA, as he failed to deliver in the main race.

Winner: Ai Ogura

For Ogura, the weekend started absolutely horribly, as he struggled to find the pace and then crashed on Saturday morning. But for him, the learning curve was steep. So by the time the sprint came in, he had adapted and took ninth place. And on Sunday, he repeated the result with another ninth-place finish, making it, in the end, a solid weekend.

Winner: Fermin Aldeguer

Another rookie, Fermin Aldeguer, has been the second rider to his teammate Alex Marquez until now.

In his incredible performance, Aldeguer fought his way into Q2 on a drying track. And during the sprint, he recovered from first-lap chaos and finished in 11th.

Yet the best performance came on Sunday, where he went from 12th to 7th by lap three and showed no fear against other riders. He had incredible pace at the end of the race and set the second-fastest lap. Yet his race ended with a crash when he tried to overtake Jack Miller. So even though he didn’t finish, his performance was remarkable and deserves to be mentioned.

Loser: KTM

So even when KTM had some bright spots, with Viñales getting into the top 10 for the first time and Enea Bastianini improving in qualifying where he finished 7th, in a closer look, it is a completely different story.

Viñales is known as a specialist on Austin, yet his performance could be more about the fact that he knows the track than about the bike’s progress. The same goes with Bastianini, who got the seventh place because of so many DNFs.

But beyond these moments, KTM is still struggling. Brad Binder has not qualified in the top 10 this season, and his teammate Pedro Acosta qualified 4th, but his races were an absolute disaster. And the rider continued to complain about the bike’s issues.

Winner: Jack Miller

Jack Miller looks like a new man since he left KTM. He showed promising pace in the dry at Thailand and took advantage of the mixed conditions in Austin.

Miller was the best Yamaha rider, who was absolutely flying on slick tires during Friday’s practice session. But although the track later dried, Miller had already secured his spot in Q2 and qualified in 9th.

Sadly, his sprint was ruined by a poor start. But on Sunday, where the drying track made an impact, it didn’t surprise him, as he rode smartly. Miller stayed behind Franco Morbidelli and avoided mistakes, which gave him the fifth place, making it his first top 10 of the season.

Winner: Fabio Quartararo

Quartararo qualified 11th and finished the race in 10th, which, like that, looks like nothing special. But what was special was his sprint performance.

Quartararo thrilled fans in a battle against Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio. He fought hard to finish in fourth, but in the end, he settled for 6th. And if we count Yamaha’s struggles, this was a confidence-boosting performance for Quartararo.

Loser: Marco Bezzecchi

Friday was a nightmare for Bezzecchi. He had technical issues in FP1, which left him with almost no laps and track time. And when he finally got to race, he crashed. This had left him 13th on the grid.

But at least Sunday wasn’t all bad. He managed to recover up to sixth, and he set the sixth-fastest lap time, which only showed the pace he could have had if the weekend had started more smoothly.