After an exciting Tissot Sprint, MotoGP riders are gearing up to race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, with attention on Viñales as he aims to establish himself as the new COTA King.
Pecco Bagnaia won the Portuguese Grand Prix to complete a perfect start to his title defence, as a Marc Marquez crash took several frontrunners out of the victory battle. Home hero Miguel Oliveira had lunged to first place at Turn 1, and Jorge Martin then repassed him coming out of the corner, but Marquez divebombed at Turn 2. This, however, compromised his line and he nearly went down from contact coming out of the corner. By then, Bagnaia had picked off Martin at the start of the second tour and put a move on Oliveira for the lead at Turn 13. This put Oliveira in the firing line when Marquez seemed to get his braking terribly wrong at Turn 3, clipping Martin before absolutely clobbering into the new RNF Aprilia signing.