Prior to arriving in Austin, Viñales began to experience pain and limited power in his left shoulder, and further assessments determined that a screw fitted after the Spaniard’s Sachsenring injury last year had become displaced.

Following consultation with MotoGP’s medical advisor after today’s FP1, Viñales elected to withdraw from the event. ‘Top Gun’ will now return to Europe to undergo a minor procedure to remove the screw, with the goal of being fit to return for the Grand Prix of Spain.

On the other side of the garage, Bastianini rose to the occasion with an impressive and determined performance throughout Friday’s sessions.

The Italian made a steady start to proceedings, setting a 2’02.718 in FP1 to finish P14, just over one second adrift of the leading time. On the sister bike, Viñales met the chequered flag one place ahead of his team-mate.

As the team adapted to the demanding layout of the Circuit of the Americas for Round 3 of the 2026 MotoGP™ World Championship, Bastianini showed strong pace and consistency during the afternoon’s Practice.

A best lap of 2’01.579 ultimately secured tenth place and a spot in Q2 – marking the first time that the Italian has advanced directly to Q2 since the 2025 Grand Prix of Catalonia. 

With one rider sidelined, all focus now shifts to the #23 machine as Bastianini looks to build on his positive momentum and fight towards the front in tomorrow’s Qualifying (10:50 UTC-5) and the Sprint (15:00 UTC-5).

Further updates on Viñales’ recovery will be communicated in due course.

Enea Bastianini: “Today was an important step for us. Already this morning I felt that we had the potential to improve in Practice, and we managed to do that to go directly into Q2. It is good to be back fighting on the limit again, and, most importantly, we are back on target.

“We still need to make another step for tomorrow, because I did not complete many laps on the soft tyre this afternoon but, overall,  the feeling was better and the base was quite strong here. Now we need to keep working in the same direction and try to be even more competitive in Qualifying and the Sprint.”

Maverick Viñales: “Of course I am disappointed not to continue this weekend, because I really wanted to race here with the team. But after feeling more pain and less power in my shoulder, and after speaking with the medical staff, the best decision was to stop and take care of it properly.

“Now the focus is on returning to Europe, having the procedure, and starting recovery as soon as possible. My target is to come back fully fit and at 100%, because that is the only way I want to race.”