Marquez keeps perfect COTA record with pole position
Full qualifying results from the Americas MotoGP
Marc Marquez has retained his perfect record at Circuit of the Americas by storming to pole position ahead of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow.
The reigning MotoGP world champion dominated the wet-to-dry FP4 session and duly followed it up with his seventh consecutive pole position in qualifying for the Americas MotoGP with a 2m 03.787s to beat nearest challenger Rossi by 0.273s.
Full qualifying results from the Americas MotoGP
Marc Marquez has retained his perfect record at Circuit of the Americas by storming to pole position ahead of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow.
The reigning MotoGP world champion dominated the wet-to-dry FP4 session and duly followed it up with his seventh consecutive pole position in qualifying for the Americas MotoGP with a 2m 03.787s to beat nearest challenger Rossi by 0.273s.
Marquez has now claimed 10 out of 11 pole positions in his premier class career contested on American soil – including races at Laguna Seca and Indianapolis – to further cement his imperious performance.
With Monster Yamaha’s Rossi grabbing second place, Crutchlow used his final lap to jump up to the final spot on the front row for LCR Honda.
Jack Miller heads up the second row for Pramac Ducati just ahead of standout performer Pol Espargaro who grabbed Red Bull KTM’s best-ever MotoGP qualifying result with fifth place – just 0.685s off pole-sitter Marquez.
Maverick Vinales completes row two for Monster Yamaha ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins who messed up his final lap having been set to challenge for the front row.
Danilo Petrucci had an eventful qualifying progressing through Q1, knocking out Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in the first session, to take eighth place with Fabio Quartararo completing row three for Petronas Yamaha.
Quarataro’s team-mate Franco Morbidelli heads up row four with Jorge Lorenzo in 11th place after seeing his chain jump off the sprocket during his first run forcing him to abandon his Repsol Honda on the pit straight and run back to his garage for his second bike, emulating Marquez’s similar feat from 2015 at COTA.
Francesco Bagnaia completed the Q2 contenders but suffered a miserable session crashing twice, at Turn 11 and Turn 1, to leave him down in 12th for Pramac Ducati.
With Lorenzo and Petrucci graduating from Q1, it left Dovizioso down in 13th place – missing out to his factory Ducati team-mate by 0.016s – to suffer his worst qualifying since the 2017 Spanish round.
Joan Mir was another consistent challenger in Q1 but had to settle for 14th place for Suzuki but ahead of Takaaki Nakagami on the LCR Honda.
Aleix Espargaro ducked ahead of Aprilia team-mate Andrea Iannone, while Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira beating factory KTM rider Johann Zarco.
Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham lines up from 20th place but ahead of Tech3’s Hafizh Syahrin with Tito Rabat completing the grid in 22nd.
