Marc Marquez’s dominance at Circuit of The Americas continued as the Repsol Honda rider set a new Circuit Best Lap record of 2’02.773 in qualifying, beating the record he set last year by a third of a second to take pole position.
Marquez out-qualified his teammate Dani Pedrosa by 0.289 seconds, while LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl completed an all-Honda front row by finishing third quickest with a best lap time a tenth of a second slower than Pedrosa. All riders on the front row used the combination of the medium compound front and rear slicks during their time attack in Qualifying Practice 2.
Conditions today were similar to yesterday, with cool and windy conditions in the morning session followed by warmer temperatures in the afternoon, with a peak track temperature of 43°C recorded during Qualifying Practice 2. The thirty-minute FP4 session was used to assess race tyre options and all three rear slick options brought to this circuit were utilised. For the Factory Honda and Yamaha riders, both the medium and hard compound rear slicks were used to good effect today and should figure on the grid for tomorrow’s race. For the Ducati and Open-class riders, the medium compound rear is the preferred option, although some riders will elect to use the soft compound rear for the race. Front-end stability while cornering and braking is extremely important at Circuit of The Americas and this is evident with the harder, medium compound front slick being the most popular option.
The weather forecast predicts a slight chance of rain for tomorrow’s twenty-one lap Americas Grand Prix which starts at 1400 local time (GMT -5). The riders will have one last chance to confirm their race setup during the twenty minute Warm Up session at 0940.
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft & Medium; Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric)
Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Soft (Main) & Hard (Alternative)
Weather: FP3 – Dry. Ambient 22-23°C; Track 27-28°C (Bridgestone measurement)
FP4/QP – Dry. Ambient 27-28°C; Track 42-43°C (Bridgestone measurement)
Masao Azuma- Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Division
“We were able to build on a solid first day here at Circuit of The Americas with good track conditions allowing the riders to evaluate the rear tyre options available to each of them. I expect to see all three rear tyre options being used for tomorrow’s race as they all performed well during race simulations, and the medium compound is likely to be the most popular choice. Marc is very strong at this circuit but overall the race pace among the riders is very close and hopefully we will see another very competitive race like we witnessed in Qatar.”
Americas MotoGP™ QP 2 times (1435-1450 GMT -5) – Riders that qualified from QP1 shaded in gray
|
Pos
|
Rider
|
Team
|
QP2 Time
|
Gap
|
|
1
|
Marc MARQUEZ
|
Repsol Honda Team
|
2’02.773
|
|
|
2
|
Dani PEDROSA
|
Repsol Honda Team
|
2’03.062
|
0.289
|
|
3
|
Stefan BRADL
|
LCR Honda MotoGP
|
2’03.196
|
0.423
|
|
4
|
Aleix ESPARGARO
|
NGM Forward Racing
|
2’03.240
|
0.467
|
|
5
|
Jorge LORENZO
|
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
|
2’03.243
|
0.470
|
|
6
|
Valentino ROSSI
|
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
|
2’03.244
|
0.471
|
|
7
|
Cal CRUTCHLOW
|
Ducati Team
|
2’03.780
|
1.007
|
|
8
|
Bradley SMITH
|
Monster Yamaha Tech 3
|
2’03.800
|
1.027
|
|
9
|
Andrea IANNONE
|
Pramac Racing
|
2’03.842
|
1.069
|
|
10
|
Andrea DOVIZIOSO
|
Ducati Team
|
2’03.846
|
1.073
|
|
11
|
Pol ESPARGARO
|
Monster Yamaha Tech 3
|
2’03.913
|
1.140
|
|
12
|
Alvaro BAUTISTA
|
GO&FUN Honda Gresini
|
2’03.923
|
1.150
|
Advertisements
[wp_dfp_ad slot="mm_lb_03"]
