Maverick Vinales set a lap record to MotoGP pole in Americas GP, with Pedro Acosta ending up in second from Marc Marquez.
Q1:
The first part in MotoGP qualifying in Americas GP saw an early fall for KTM’s Brad Binder, which forced him to switch to a second bike. It was Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez in front with a time of 2m01.870s as Yamaha’s Alex Rins slotted in second.
There were some out of sequence runners with Trackhouse Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira taking top spot from Marquez after his 2m01.844s lap. It dropped Rins to third with KTM’s Jack Miller fourth and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in the Top 5.
The second run saw improvements and a quick lap of 2m01.541s lap from Miller to make it inside Q2 alongside Marquez 2m01.553s lap – just the 0012s gap between the two. Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez missed out in third to be 13th on the grid.
Teammate Oliveira was 14th with Yamaha pair of Rins and Quartararo following on in 15th and 16th. The Frenchman having set his lap suffered a fall, as he beat Binder who was 17th from GASGAS Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez ahead of the Honda riders.
All of them rounded the back of the grid with LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco in 19th from Honda’s Joan Mir, LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Honda’s Luca Marini to round out the 22 MotoGP runners in Americas GP.
Q2:
The second part in MotoGP qualifying in Americas GP saw an early crash as well for Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, who was looking quick already on his first lap. He pressed on to start another quick lap, but that didn’t end in a good either.
He lost his rear at Turn 20 to crash again, leaving him without a lap midway in the session. Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, meanwhile, led the way with a 2m01.243s lap from Gresini’s Marc Marquez and Ducati’s Enea Bastianini in the Top 3.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was fourth from Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia in the Top 5. The second run also had a crash for Espargaro at Turn 2 which more or less ended his run, as his teammate Vinales improved further to retain the top spot.
He set a record breaking 2m00.864s lap to secure MotoGP pole in Americas GP, as Tech 3’s Pedro Costa climbed up to second for his best start, dropping Marquez third after his quick lap was cancelled. Bagnaia improved to fourth from teammate Bastianini.
It was Martin in sixth after his lone lap, as Espargaro maintained seventh despite his crash. VR46 Ducati’s Fabio di Giannantonio as eighth as late quick lap from Gresini’s Franco Morbidelli was ninth, dropping Marco Bezzecchi to 10th. Miller was only 11th as A Maqreuz di not get a lap in.