Marc Márquez has not given up and claimed pole position in the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas. After having a problem in the absence of three minutes, the champion achieved “in extremis” one championship pole. Second was Andrea Dovizioso.
With a tightly covered sky, the first qualifying session started with Andrea Iannone as the first to taste the track. The Italian then stood first followed by Pramac and Hernandez. Iannone then improved his time, while Barberá managed to climb to second place, taking advantage of the slipstream of Iannone.
The drivers stop in boxes at mid-session to go out again and have two more tries, Iannone and Hernandez when they went at that time hoped to have the whole track without distractions. But both drivers stopped in boxes and finish the session.
This helped Maverick Viñales get access to Q2, the Suzuki succeeded by very little despite traffic problems. Viñales and Iannone passed into Q2; the positions 13-25 would be to:
13 Barbera, 14 Bradl, 15 Hernandez, 16 Di Meglio, 17 Laverty, 18 Aoyama, 19 Miller, 20 Baz, 21 Abraham, 22 Hayden, 23 Bautista, 24 De Angelis, 25 Melandri.
In the second session, Lorenzo began marking the first lap, but it was not a very competitive time, Marquez managed to improve on 7/10 and placed himself first, Lorenzo was second after making a second consecutive lap.
The strategy this time was turn around and go, by Honda, Suzuki and Ducati, while Yamaha and the rest did two timed laps.
In the absence of 5 minutes, Marquez led followed by Lorenzo, Aleix Espargaró, Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso.
And an inexplicable fact, Marquez suffered a problem with the gearbox and stopped his motorcycle in the finishing straight, jumping the wall signaling, and began sprinting up to boxes to take his second bike to fight for pole.
Meanwhile, Cal Crutchlow managed to be on pole position by marking the track record time. A time that would be overtaken by Lorenzo in the last minute.
In the final seconds Dovizioso was placed in pole position, while Marquez entered its last lap to try to get the pole. Cervera boy was seventh when everyone had already crossed the finish line. The two-time MotoGP world champion, managed to be the fastest in the four sectors and took pole position in 3/10 of a second, a meeting of those that highlight the Spaniard as the greatest of the championship.
