2026 US MotoGP: Fabio Di Giannantonio claims back-to-back poles
Fabio Di Giannantonio will start the 2026 MotoGP United States Grand Prix from pole.
Fabio Di Giannantonio claims his second consecutive MotoGP pole, after setting a new all-time lap record at the United States Grand Prix.
Francesco Bagnaia made a blistering start to Q2 as he set a new all-time lap record of his own on just his first lap of the session.
But it was Joan Mir that made the biggest statement of all during the opening runs of Q2, as the factory Honda rider went quickest by two tenths of a second. The 2020 world champion set a time of 2m00.591s.
Marc Marquez was also on course to challenge for provisional pole, before traffic affected the nine-time world champion’s second effort.
Marquez momentarily moved up to second place with just over a minute remaining, before Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta all moved up to the front row.
Di Giannantonio did not attempt another lap, but he didn’t need to as Bagnaia, who did improve right at the end of Q2, could only manage fourth place.
As the session was ending, it was confirmed that Bezzecchi was under investigation for potentially blocking Marc Marquez, while the latter is also under investigation for a similar incident with Enea Bastianini.
Stay up to date with all the live reaction from qualifying and the sprint at COTA.
Just like the battle for pole position in Q2, Q1 was also intense from the very off, as Mir immediately set his fastest lap of the weekend, with a time of 2m01.324s. Mir bettered that time on his very next lap, as he moved four tenths clear of Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez.
A difficult weekend for Fabio Quartararo continued as the 2021 world champion suffered a fall at turn 15 on his first run. It was a nasty crash for the Yamaha star, who was nearly hit by his M1 which flipped from left-to-right.
Despite plenty of red sectors at the start of the second and final runs, only Fermin Aldeguer was able to go faster than Mir’s early lap time. The Gresini rider set the first sub-2m01s lap, which put him over two tenths clear of Mir, who also advanced to Q2 ahead of Fernandez, Diogo Moreira and Johann Zarco.
Quartararo will start 16th ahead of fellow Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu and KTM’s Brad Binder.
