Practice report

Austin MotoGP: Marquez fastest in warm-up, Dovizioso second

Marc Marquez continued his domination at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas by topping the warm-up for today’s MotoGP race, as Andrea Dovizioso – who starts 13th – was boosted by setting the second fastest time.

The 20-minute session was held in cold, dry conditions and featured a lot less wind than riders experienced in qualifying on Saturday.

Jack Miller set the early pace on 2m06.432s, but suffered a massive early wobble on the back straight, similar to Marquez on Saturday, and then almost dropped his Pramac Ducati at the fast Turn 10, using his knee to regain control.

Miller (using the soft front and rear tyre) then went even faster, working down to a 2m05.610s before Marquez (using a soft front and medium rear) claimed the top spot with 2m05.560s. Miller responded with 2m04.932s, which Marquez couldn’t match at that point.

But Marquez soon hit his customary top spot in the closing minutes, lowering the bar to 2m04.573s.

Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, using the soft front and rear, rose to third with a lap of 2m05.207s, before Dovizioso topped him – by following Vinales around – with a 2m05.044s.

Dovizioso grabbed second on his final lap, a 2m04.766s, while Vinales improved to 2m04.973s, just 0.041s slower than third-placed Miller.

Cal Crutchlow was fifth fastest on his LCR Honda, ahead of the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Franco Morbidelli. Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci and the Suzukis of Alex Rins and Joan Mir rounded out the top 10.

Marquez had one scare in the session, when he ran deep at Turn 12 and just missed Hafizh Syahrin's Tech 3 KTM and Karel Abraham's Avintia Ducati.

Session results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	2'04.573
2	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	2'04.766	0.193
3	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	2'04.932	0.359
4	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	2'04.973	0.400
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	2'05.143	0.570
6	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	2'05.428	0.855
7	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	2'05.667	1.094
8	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	2'05.752	1.179
9	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	2'05.853	1.280
10	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	2'06.012	1.439
11	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	2'06.063	1.490
12	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	2'06.068	1.495
13	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	2'06.209	1.636
14	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	2'06.348	1.775
15	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	2'06.629	2.056
16	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	2'07.080	2.507
17	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	2'07.487	2.914
18	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	2'07.512	2.939
19	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	2'07.598	3.025
20	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	2'07.608	3.035
21	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	2'07.624	3.051
22	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	2'07.871	3.298