Tough Day At The Office for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP on Texas Race Day
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins struggled to make progress in the 20-lap Grand Prix of the United States Race. They finished in P17 and P18 respectively.
GRAND PRIX OF THE AMERICAS
RACE
Austin (Texas, USA), 29th March 2026
17th
F. Quartararo +27.136 / 20 LAPS
18th
Á. Rins +38.701 / 20 LAPS
The Grand Prix of the United States Race didn't play out as the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team had hoped. Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins took the chequered flag in 17th and 18th place respectively.
Quartararo launched from P16 and held this position for the majority of the 20-lap contest, though he briefly climbed up to P15 after Ai Ogura had a technical issue on lap 15. El Diablo was in the company of Toprak Razgatlíoğlu and focused on defending his position from him. El Diablo did so successfully until lap 18. Losing one more position to Jack Miller on the final lap, he finished in P17, 27.136s from first.
Starting from P21, Rins was not able to make up positions in the tight Turn 1 and settled at the back of the pack. He climbed up a position on lap 5 but had to relinquish it on lap 8, and afterwards it became a lonely ride for him. With three rivals unable to reach the finish line, Rins took the chequered flag in P18, 38.701s from the winner.
Today's results put Quartaro in 17th place in the championship standings with 6 points. Rins is in 18th with 3 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP are in 10th position in the team classifications, with 9 points, and Yamaha is fifth in the contructor rankings with 9 points.
The team will enjoy three weeks off before travelling to Jerez for the Grand Prix of Spain, held from 24–26 April.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
"All in all, it's been a tough race weekend. I don't want to say that 'it's a GP to forget' because we need to learn from the difficulties we faced. We knew before coming here that COTA is one of the tracks that highlight our areas of improvement. Following the Sprint and the Race, we now have data with the new bike that we can analyse. While these are not 'fun' races for the riders or our team, they are crucial for future bike development. We will use the three weeks leading up to the Spanish GP to regroup and prepare, so we can give it our all again in Jerez."
FABIO QUARTARARO Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
"I didn't expect the tyres to drop like that at the end. I was managing the tyres, but they still dropped in the last five laps. Yamaha knows what we need and what we need to do. Toprak impressed me all weekend, though. The way he rides is really smooth and very much his style, like we've seen in WorldSBK – it's good."
ÁLEX RINS Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
"We had an electronic issue in today's race that was affecting the bike. In the beginning I was feeling good. I was in front of Miller, and I was going to catch Toprak. But on lap 8, I started to encounter an issue, and that's it. It was quite tough to manage."
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team Director