In Texas, the comeback brings the team into the points.

Friday, March 27th

Cloudy weather, but without particular concerns, opened the Texan weekend with FP1 at the Circuit of the Americas. For Jesus Rios, this marked the beginning of his adaptation process to a completely new track: the young Spaniard made the most of the session with a first long run of the weekend, completing 11 consecutive laps with steady progression, useful both for learning the layout and understanding the bike’s behavior and tire wear.
A slightly shorter run for Nicola Carraro, who completed 9 uninterrupted laps to regain confidence on a particularly technical circuit. Both riders ended the session with a second 3-lap run until the checkered flag.

In the afternoon, during Practice, lap times dropped significantly, confirming the progress of the Snipers Team. Rios completed 12 laps in total, setting his best time on the ninth lap and nearly matching it again on the final lap, despite a minor crash midway through the session that did not affect the overall work.
The improvement compared to the morning was significant, with around two seconds gained.
A more consistent session for Carraro, who completed 13 laps, showing great consistency especially in the final phase, with a series of very competitive laps and his best time set on the penultimate lap. He also showed clear progress compared to FP1, improving by over one and a half seconds.

Saturday, March 28th

The second Free Practice session proved slightly more complex than the previous day, with initial difficulties in improving lap times—except for Nicola Carraro’s fourth lap, where he already posted a time close to the Practice benchmarks.
However, progress soon followed: both Carraro and Jesus Rios managed to set their best lap times after a tire change, making the most of the second part of the session in a time attack approach ahead of qualifying.

Both riders were forced to go through Q1 to try and secure access to Q2, and the team adopted an effective strategy, avoiding pit stops and completing five consecutive laps until the checkered flag.
Nicola Carraro stood out immediately on his first flying lap, securing third place in the session with his best time of the weekend and earning his first Q2 appearance of the season.
Jesus Rios followed the same strategy, managing to set lap times very close to his teammate’s and narrowly missing out on Q2 by just two tenths of a second.

In Q2, Carraro changed approach, heading out on track straight away to aim for a competitive benchmark in his first run. The Snipers rider improved further on his Q1 time already on his second lap, his only attempt before the tire change. In the final moments, with room for one last push, he managed to shave off nearly half a second right under the checkered flag, securing 16th position on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Sunday, March 29th

A 14-lap race that looked set to be challenging, also due to the penalty Jesus Rios had to serve following the Brazilian GP.
When the lights went out, Nicola Carraro made a strong start, but contact in Turn 1 forced him wide, causing him to lose the advantage gained and drop back to 23rd place. A more cautious approach instead for Jesus Rios in the early stages, who, despite completing some overtakes, focused on studying his rivals and building his race ahead of serving his two long lap penalties.

Carraro immediately began his comeback, making several overtakes in the middle part of the race and progressively recovering positions. Rios completed his first long lap on lap three and the second on lap five, rejoining the track a few seconds behind the group where his teammate was.
In the final five laps, Carraro continued his progression, battling within a tight group and gaining further positions. Rios, despite the time lost with the penalties, maintained a very competitive pace until the end, managing to overtake both his teammate and other rivals.

Carraro’s comeback resulted in a 17th-place finish at the checkered flag, just outside the points. A strong recovery as well for Jesus Rios, who finished 15th at the end, securing his first points of the 2026 season after a steadily improving race.

Commenti

Some difficulties in finding the right pace for Nicola Carraro:
“At Turn 1 I almost crashed and ended up near the back. After that I tried to regain my rhythm, even though it wasn’t easy to find a fast pace and I struggled to make overtakes.

Jesus Rios was pleased with his comeback:
“At the start I tried to find space to move forward straight away but couldn’t manage it. However, I was able to find a good rhythm from the beginning and made up several positions in Turn 11. Then with the two long laps I lost quite a bit of ground, but I quickly found a good pace again, similar to the riders in the top 10. I kept pushing until the end, recovering up to 15th position, starting from 20th with two long laps, so I’m satisfied. We’re gaining more and more experience ahead of Jerez, which is also my home GP, and I’m confident we can do even better there!”