Martin reigns supreme in P2 as Binder denies Bezzecchi

Jorge Martin takes top spot for Ducati in Practice 2 at the American MotoGP, while championship leader Marco Bezzecchi will need to advance through Q1 after losing out on a top ten spot to Brad Binder.

Robert Jones

14 Apr 2023

As was the case during P1, Alex Marquez was the early pacesetter for Gresini Ducati, as the Spaniard went within a tenth of his time attack effort from earlier in the day.

While many riders began the session on race runs, Miguel Oliveira went for an unusual time attack after just eight minutes in order to get a banker lap in - the RNF Aprilia man went third quickest.

The bad news for Oliveira is that he crashed moments later in what was a very fast fall at turn two.

Not on a time attack run but still putting in very fast lap times was Bagnaia, as the reigning world champion was beginning to look ominous.

Bagnaia, who had a used medium on the front and rear of his factory machine, went within a tenth of Luca Marini’s fastest time from P1, shortly before returning to pit lane.

Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was another rider who immediately went quicker than in P1, however, it wasn’t enough to move the Italian into the top ten as he sat in P11 with nearly half the session gone.

For the second time in P2, Fabio Quartararo came close to going down after a huge wobble on the exit of turn nine. The first moment came at turn 15 when he momentarily lost the front-end of his M1.

Next to fit a soft rear tyre was Jorge Martin but the Pramac rider made a costly mistake at the final corner on his first time attack attempt.

But on lap two there were no such dramas as Martin went to the top of the leaderboard on combined times.

After already crashing early on, Oliveira went down for a second time in the session after losing the front at turn 12.

Quiet on his return throughout P1 and the early stages of P2, Joan Mir sprung into life as he went fastest for Repsol Honda at the start of the qualifying runs.

Joan Mir , MotoGP, Grand Prix Of The Americas, 14 April

Rins then made it a Honda 1-2 as he went fastest, however, Aleix Espargaro was quick to deny the LCR rider.

A flurry of fast laps then came in as Vinales was first to dislodge Espargaro off top spot. However, Marini responded with a time of 2:02.664s as Bagnaia and Rins joined him inside the top three.

Marini looked set to blitz his best time before a mistake in sector four opened the door for Bagnaia to sweep in and take top spot, which he did by over a tenth.

At the start of the final time attack run, Martin did what he does best as he extracted everything from his Ducati over one lap to set a stunning time of 2:02.178s.

Rins jumped up to second moments later, while Binder knocked Bezzecchi out of the top ten with his final effort.

There were late falls for Stefan Bradl, Johann Zarco, while Mir had to take avoiding action as Zarco’s bike was lying on the race track.