Francesco Bagania who was leading the championship after round one, looking like a world beater at one point, now sits fifth in the championship standings; Pedro Acosta the rookie, after just three rounds sits higher up in fourth place as the highest placed KTM rider as Binder struggles to find form; and Maverick Vinales, despite suffering from a torrid opening round and then crashing out from second place due to mechanical failure, still finds himself in third place in the standings owing to an up and down performance from all riders around.

In all of this, the two guys disputing for the second official seat at Ducati, Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini, have been the only riders to keep their calm and maintain a level of consistency befitting the leaders in the championship.

So let’s take a look into the aftermath of round three at the Circuit Of The Americas.

1- Acosta challenging Binder’s lead role at KTM

Pedro Acosta after just three rounds sits fourth in the championship, twenty-six points down on championship leader Jorge Martin and just five points down on Enea Bastianini in second place.

With these two back-to-back podium finishes, Pedro Acosta is also the top KTM in the championship ahead of KTM’s usual flagbearer Brad Binder. This will put Binder under a lot of pressure from the rookie going into the European leg of the season, where he seems to be at his very best.

Last year in Jerez, the South African won the Sprint race and then followed it up with an impressive second place on Sunday, which is the territory he will be hoping to be in this weekend.

However, despite Acosta taking Binder’s thunder early on in the season, we shouldn’t forget that the South African has faced similar challenges from teammates in the past.

Last year in the early part of the season, it was Miller who took to the KTM like a duck to water as the Australian showed immediate pace advantage over Binder in earlier rounds like Portugal, America, and Argentina, only to be shown the way for the rest of the year.

Similar stuff happened when Oliveira joined the factory KTM lineup alongside Binder in 2021 when the Portuguese rider showed glimpses of superiority over the South African but Binder in the end always prevailed.

Moreover, the all-technical COTA and Portimao circuits are known for being off-beat rounds compared to the more traditional circuits which arrive now, and Binder hasn’t always thrived in COTA and Portugal in the past, so expect him to be much higher up the grid this weekend compared to the last two rounds.

Now for the main question: Can Acosta outdo Binder in the European rounds?

So far, out of all the teammates Binder has faced, there has been no one that comes close to the level of talent and racecraft that Acosta offers. And if there is anything we know from Acosta until now, is that he is a fast adapter and builds on confidence.

With momentum firmly on his side, Acosta will be entering the European rounds oozing with confidence, and Binder will have a monumental task of putting the Spanish rookie back in his place.
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2- Bagnaia’s silence needs to end…

“We work in silence!” were the exact words Bagnaia said after winning the opening round in Qatar. However, since then, it has been a slightly less exuberant form of silence that we have seen from Bagnaia in Portugal and COTA.

The reigning world champion enters the European rounds with two lowkey performances in COTA and Portugal. But it looks like his championship run could be spurred again with a solid performance this weekend at Jerez, a venue that has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for the Italian.

In the last two rounds, Bagnaia lacked the sheer speed to challenge the likes of Martin, Bastianini, and Marquez, despite those two venues being happy hunting grounds in the past for the Italian (Bagnaia won twice in Portugal in 2021 and 2023; and was on his way to a dominant victory in COTA last year before crashing out from the lead.)

So a lot of questions will be answered as to where Bagnaia stands with regards to a much more competitive 2024 field. Last year, the Italian entered the Spanish round as the outright favorite to win the race with little competition expected from fellow Ducati stablemates.

However, for this season, the situation doesn’t seem as straightforward, as Bagnaia faces a huge challenge from Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini, and Marc Marquez.

Thirty points to the championship leader may seem like a lot in the past, but with a longer season format along with the Sprints, Bagnaia will have plentiful opportunities to turn the tables around but he will need to halt Martin’s current run of form to get right back in the mix.

3- Aprilia poaching a top rider from Ducati?

It’s no surprise that Aprilia is looking for a rider to spearhead the Noale-based factory’s championship aspirations. Right before the America’s Grand Prix, they offered Fabio Quatararo a reported deal of four million euros, but the French rider opted to stay put at Yamaha, which offered a massive twelve million euros, forcing Aprilia to search elsewhere.

With Vinales’s recent run of form, a two-year deal with Aprilia does seem massive and could attract attention from top GP24 Ducati riders Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini, who are engaged in a duel for the second official seat at Ducati. And with rumors of Pramac Racing in advanced negotiations with Yamaha for a satellite role, one of the two riders will be expected to leave Ducati altogether.

Furthermore, Marc Marquez is also a candidate worth mentioning as the Spaniard is a top-caliber rider who will also feature heavily in this year’s world championship despite being on a year-old Ducati. The Spaniard’s one-year deal with Gresini suggests that he is also actively looking at other factory options for 2025.

With Aprilia currently being the second fastest factory, having won the most races so far, and having a possibility of a team being created around them, a deal with Aprilia does seem like a very lucrative option, and it is pointing towards one of these three riders taking it.