After two exciting races in Portugal and Argentina, the MotoGP calendar will next head to the iconic Circuit of the Americas. Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia won the race in Portugal, while Mooney VR46 Racing Team’s Marco Bezzecchi won the race in Argentina.

Advertisement

Bagnaia seems to have carried over his outstanding form to the Circuit of the Americas as he qualified on the pole for Sunday’s main race. The 26-year-old set a lap time of 2:01.892, which was over 0.1 seconds faster than the next best time.

Bagnaia has shown some incredible pace recently as he registered an insane top speed of 349.5 km/hr. Speaking of speed, one important question that motorsports fans often wonder is whether MotoGP is faster than NASCAR and Formula 1.

Advertisement

Is MotoGP faster than NASCAR and F1?

Considering MotoGP takes place on two-wheelers as compared to most other forms of motorsport, the racers yet exhibit an incredible amount of pace. The top speed registered to date by a MotoGP driver is by Jorge Martin. He registered a whopping speed of 363.6km/h (225.9mph) at Mugello during the Italian Grand Prix 2022.

While most forms of car racing can unsurprisingly register a faster time than MotoGP, NASCAR is not one of them. In NASCAR, the top speed registered to date is 321km/h or 199mph.

NASCAR cars are significantly slower than MotoGP or other forms of motorsport because of safety concerns. The speeds have been restricted in this form of motorsport as previously several incidents have taken place when drivers and spectators have been injured because of higher speeds.

While Formula 1 is also an incredibly dangerous form of motorsport, there are no speed restrictions. The highest speed in an F1 race to date has been recorded by Valtteri Bottas during his Mercedes days. The Finnish driver registered a whopping speed of 372.5km/h (231.4mph) at the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix.

Advertisement

Marco Bezzecchi leads championship standings

After two races in Portugal and Argentina, Mooney VR46 Racing Team’s Marco Bezzecchi currently leads the MotoGP championship standings. He has scored 54 points and is currently a point ahead of second-placed Francesco Bagnaia.

With Bagnaia clinching an outstanding pole at the Circuit of the Americas during Saturday’s qualifying session, he will hope to make the most of it during Sunday’s main race. If the Italian manages to hold on and clinch victory, he will once again take the lead in the championship standings.

Advertisement