What a wet Friday at COTA taught us about MotoGP for 2025

Friday practice for the Americas Grand Prix was a dream for anybody looking to upset the nascent 2025 form book: a genuine riders’ track that got doused with rain and then gradually dried. For racers and crews who may struggle under normal circumstances, it was a gift as generous as any Texas steak.

For keen MotoGP observers, too, the mix of conditions in Austin offered a level of intrigue not every Friday can serve up. Rookies and a new surface on a long, tough-to-learn track added to the interest. As the first significant raindrops of 2025 landed, who among the not-so-usual suspects would take the chance to prove a point?

Free Practice 1 in the morning took place on a wet circuit at a cool 18 degrees, although the track did begin to dry towards the end of the session. Afternoon Practice, in which the 10 riders to make Q2 are decided, was slightly warmer at 21 degrees and began damp. The forecast suggested that rain would not return, and so it proved. That made it ‘one of those sessions’ where the track would keep getting faster and only the final moments would matter.

P1 began with lap times almost 15 seconds off lap record pace, and slower than the end of the morning session, but 60 minutes later the field was just over two seconds shy of that 2m00.864s mark set by Maverick Viñales in qualifying last year.

As if to prove that certain things won’t change no matter the weather, the leader of the pack in the afternoon was Marc Marquez. The factory Ducati was a whopping 0.736s ahead of the VR46 Ducati twins, Fabio di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli.

What the wet weather in the morning did do, however, was make Marc look mortal for the first time ever in 2025. Tipping the GP25 into Turn 2 when the circuit was still soaked, he made a mistake and hit the floor. The world rubbed its eyes and stared in disbelief as an unhurt Marquez had to hitch a ride back to the pits. Was heavy rain going to provide a glimmer of hope for the opposition this season?

Maybe some rivals can cling to that hope. But Marc proved utterly unperturbed by his moment of aquaplaning. He was back in action later in the session and registered the third-fastest time despite the setback. And his lap was half a second quicker than his team-mate’s best. Which is another way of saying that Francesco Bagnaia did not seize the opportunity to make a statement against Marquez.

Fridays aren’t really Bagnaia’s thing at the best of times, of course. He typically needs a stable morning session to lay a foundation for the afternoon and the rest of the weekend, so the wet-to-drying track didn’t help his method. He scraped through to Q2 right on the cut line with 10th-fastest time in P1. And three weekends into the season, that’s starting to look like a worrying habit for the double world champion, who had a close call last time out in Argentina and didn’t get through at all in the Thailand opener.

With the forecast looking reasonably dry for the rest of the Americas GP, the loss of full dry running on Friday does not help Bagnaia’s slim hopes of defeating seven-time COTA winner Marc Marquez at the Spaniard’s favourite circuit. Roll on Qatar!

Besides Marc Marquez, then, who made a statement on this damp Friday in Texas?

Franco Morbidelli, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

While di Giannantonio simply repeated his Argentina trick of popping in a late P1 flier to leap into Q2, it was Morbidelli who impressed with his performance in a range of conditions throughout the day. He was fastest of all in the wet morning, then maintained his presence around the top of the timing screens as the wet-shod field dried out the track in the early part of the afternoon session.

Morbidelli then timed his attack to perfection late in the session, showing that slicks on a not-quite-dry surface held no fear for the Roman. All very encouraging for the man who made an emotional return to the podium in Argentina two weeks ago. Today’s consistency suggests the display at Rio de Termas Hondo can be repeated at other venues.

Jack Miller, so often a disappointing enigma in straightforward conditions, was in his element aboard the Pramac Yamaha. The Australian, who is a fan of the track and told media on Thursday that it was an ideal circuit for a rider’s skill to mask bike problems, was sensational on Friday. He was second only to Morbidelli in the morning, but his laps on slick tyres in the afternoon were his real highlight of the day.

The Queenslander changed from wets earlier than most – only Honda’s Luca Marini made the move before him – and proceeded to reel off a string of quickest laps on that slick rubber during the middle part of the session. His only fair yardstick, Marini, was several seconds a lap slower. It was some kind of statement from a man who seems to have found a friend in the Yamaha after switching from KTM.

Jack Miller, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Those early laps on slicks were never going to count for anything as the track continued to quicken, however. Many would have doubted whether Miller could stick with the pace as the track dried. But he was still strong at the end of the session, finishing P1 a respectable sixth. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain the momentum on a fully dry track later in the weekend.

If nothing else, there is an interesting storyline developing as Miller threatens to take over the de facto Yamaha leader role from incumbent and factory rider Fabio Quartararo, who missed direct passage into Q2.

Another turning heads was Fermin Aldeguer. After a quiet first two MotoGP weekends, the Gresini Ducati rookie leapt to prominence with the fifth-fastest time in P1. Despite the considerable task of learning the circuit on MotoGP machinery in ever-changing conditions, he was within a tenth of in-form team-mate Alex Marquez. Kudos to the Spaniard, who is still a few days away from his 20th birthday.

Today was also a slightly better one for KTM as a whole. Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder were there or thereabouts as always, but Vinales also got in on the action following a tough start to the year. He booked his way straight into Q2 with eighth-fastest time in P1. He’d also taken the same spot in the morning, when the trio all made the top nine. But given Vinales’ affinity for COTA, it’s difficult to read any wet/damp bike strength into the extra KTM presence upper-middle reaches of the field.

Finally, a mention should go to Ai Ogura, who had a miserable morning session, hampered by technical problems when he should have been getting a full quota of laps in to learn the track at MotoGP level. Even early in P1, with the bike running smoothly again, the hitherto impressive rookie was wildly off the pace. But the Trackhouse Aprilia man found respectability later in the session, posting 14th-fastest time. Considering he had, by his own analysis “not adapted well to the conditions” and made mistakes when the track was at its best, there should be much more to come.