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Austin MotoGP: Marquez outduels Vinales for fifth COTA pole

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez maintained his perfect qualifying record at the Circuit of the Americas after a thrilling shootout with points leader Maverick Vinales.

Qualifying: pole sitter Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, second place Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing, third place Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Qualifying: pole sitter Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, second place Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing, third place Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez and Vinales were in a league of their own in the qualifying session, the former narrowly prevailing at the last second with a 2m02.741s effort.

This means that Marquez remains unbeaten in qualifying in Austin, the Honda man having taken his fifth consecutive pole at the venue.

The best lap of the weekend had belonged to Vinales heading into the Q2 shootout, but Marquez bettered that with his very first effort, setting the benchmark at 2m03.675s.

His next effort lowered the target time to a 2m03.042s, with Vinales, who was visibly irritated by a run-in with Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi at Turn 18, ending his first run almost nine tenths adrift.

However, the championship leader made huge strides in the second run, making up almost the entirety of the gap with the first lap of his second run, as he crossed the line 0.083s off Marquez.

The chequered flag followed, with both Marquez and Vinales running ahead of provisional pole in the first half of the lap.

Vinales arrived first, clocking in a 2m02.871s, but a last-gasp lap from Marquez allowed him to edge ahead of his rival by 0.130s.

Rossi, who had been eighth after the first sequence of laps, ended up taking the remaining front row spot, finishing nine tenths off pole with a late effort.

Marquez's teammate Dani Pedrosa leapfrogged Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco late on to finish fourth, while Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo made up the second row in sixth.

The three-time premier class champion had been consigned to Q1 by a late shunt in the third practice session and was close to missing out on the top-12 shoot-out entirely.

He was two tenths off pace-setter Jack Miller after his first run in Q1 – and couldn't improve on his time for the remainder of the segment.

At the flag in Q1, Lorenzo ended up more than half a second ahead on nearest rival Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Ducati), but his time had been threatened by Loris Baz – before Avintia's Ducati Desmosedici GP15 rider took to the ground on exit out of the final corner, somehow hanging on to the bike yet losing his chance to advance.

Slotting in right behind Lorenzo in Q2 was teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who had a bizarre FP4, suffering mechanical issues.

Tech 3's Jonas Folger, LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow and Pramac Ducati's Scott Redding made up the top 10.

Capping off a day of premier-class running that had kicked off with a crashfest FP3 session, qualifying had a number of incidents itself, kicking off with back-to-back shunts for brothers Espargaro in Q1 – Aprilia rider Aleix going down at Turn 1 and KTM rider Pol soon following suit at Turn 2.

Crashing in Q2 early on were Miller and Suzuki's Andrea Iannone, while Crutchlow missed out on a chance to improve by going down at Turn 11 in the closing stages.

Q2 results

Pos.DriverBikeTimeGap
1 spain Marc Marquez Honda 2'02.741  
2 spain Maverick Viñales Yamaha 2'02.871 0.130
3 italy Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2'03.673 0.932
4 spain Dani Pedrosa Honda 2'03.866 1.125
5 france Johann Zarco Yamaha 2'03.928 1.187
6 spain Jorge Lorenzo Ducati 2'04.151 1.410
7 italy Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2'04.431 1.690
8 germany Jonas Folger Yamaha 2'04.623 1.882
9 united_kingdom Cal Crutchlow Honda 2'04.661 1.920
10 united_kingdom Scott Redding Ducati 2'04.673 1.932
11 italy Andrea Iannone Suzuki 2'05.741 3.000
12 australia Jack Miller Honda 2'05.970 3.229

Q1 results

Pos.RiderBikeTimeGap
1 australia Jack Miller Honda 2'04.438  
2 spain Jorge Lorenzo Ducati 2'04.648 0.210
3 italy Danilo Petrucci Ducati 2'05.221 0.783
4 france Loris Baz Ducati 2'05.231 0.793
5 spain Hector Barbera Ducati 2'05.541 1.103
6 spain Tito Rabat Honda 2'05.920 1.482
7 czech_republic Karel Abraham Ducati 2'05.931 1.493
8 united_kingdom Bradley Smith KTM 2'06.258 1.820
9 spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 2'06.295 1.857
10 united_kingdom Sam Lowes Aprilia 2'07.232 2.794
11 spain Pol Espargaro KTM 2'07.601 3.163

 

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