Viñales takes a record pole position, ahead of Acosta and Marc Márquez in Austin

The Spanish Maverick Vinales (Aprilia RS-GP) added its fifteenth ‘pole position’ in MotoGP with absolute record of the Austin COTA circuit, in the official classification for the Grand Prix of the Americas of MotoGP.

Viñales, who has 26 pole positions throughout his racing career, established a new absolute track record by being the only driver to lap in two minutes (2:00.864), accompanied on the front line of the American race for two more Spaniards, Pedro Acosta (Gas Gas RC 16) and Marc Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23).

The dominance of the Spanish riders was total and absolute, with four in the first six positions, a fight in which only the official Ducati riders, the Italians, got involved in the fourth and fifth position. Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia y Aeneas ‘The Beast’ Bastianini.

The first classification was a somewhat unusual appointment but in reality gives a glimpse of the current situation of MotoGPwith the two Japanese factories in the championship, Honda and Yamaha, with all their riders forced to go through it, in addition to the official KTM riders, those from the Aprilia satellite team and Alex Márquez and his Ducati Desmosedici GP23.

Actually Alex Márquez seemed to be the driver with the most options of achieving the pass to the second classification due to his performance in the second round of free practice, while the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16) soon compromised his participation by crashing in turn eleven and being forced to return as soon as possible to his workshop to repair and not lose the rest of the batch.

It was immediately clear that the track had improved grip conditions as Alex Márquez took the lead with a time of 2:01.870, which was six tenths of a second faster than his personal best from Friday.

The youngest of the Márquezs was surpassed by the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia RS-GP), who lapped in 2:01.844, just 26 thousandths of a second faster than the Spaniard, but in the last ‘time attack’ the Australian Jack Miller (KTM RC 16) climbed to first position (2:01.541), followed by the Spaniards Alex Márquez and Raúl Fernández (Aprilia RS-GP).

At another point on the track, at the end of the straight, in the difficult first corner of the American layout, the Frenchman crashed Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), MotoGP world champion in 2021, when trying to improve the sixth position he occupied.

In the end, Jack Miller made it to the second classification with the best time and Alex Márquez just 12 thousandths of a second behind the Australian, while the South African Binder, second in the world championship table, could not correct his mistake at the beginning of the classification. and finished seventh, which places him seventeenth in the starting lineup, just behind Quartararo.

The Honda riders did not raise their heads and ended up taking the last four positions in the classification with the Frenchman Johann Zarco in front of Joan Mirthe Japanese Takaaki Nakagami and the Italian Luca Marini.

Already in the second classification we could immediately see some ‘interesting’ things, the first of which was seeing how Marc Márquez got behind the wheel of Jorge Martin to use it as a reference, although he could not do so for a long time because this ended up on the ground in turn elevenalthough without letting go of the handlebars so that the engine of his Ducati did not turn off, he was able to quickly return to the track.

While another Spaniard, Maverick Vinales (APrilia RS-GP) took the lead in the classification with a better time and new record than the one achieved yesterday by Martín, as he stopped the clock at 2:01.243, improving on Friday’s 2:01.397.

Martín decided not to even go to his workshop so as not to waste any time, but his nerves played a new trick on him and he crashed again at turn 18 and, this time, his bike ended up damaged and he had to look for to some assistance to return to his workshop as soon as possible in an electric “buggy”. Martin was eleventh.

By then, Maverick Viñales was the leader followed by 23 thousandths of a second Marc Márquez and with the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) third at 196 thousandths of a second.

With just over five minutes into the session, Jorge Martín returned to the track and moments later and Marc Márquez did so alone. That was the last chance to improve.

The first discard at that moment came from the hand of the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), who crashed in turn two when he was fifth and by not defending the place he finished seventh, one line further behind where he was. found then.

His teammate, Maverick Viñales, meanwhile, set two fastest lap stages in all sections of the circuit to achieve a new absolute circuit record by running in 2:00.864, one second faster than last year’s record.

Marc Márquez, alone, managed to place secondfour tenths behind Maverick Viñales, although on his last lap he overtook him Pedro Acosta For just 74 thousandths of a second, the eight-time world champion still had the possibility of doing one more lap, but he was unable to improve his time, although the first starting line with Viñales and Acosta was already a reality.

The Italians Bagnaia, Bastianini and a Jorge Martín who gave in to the pressure and the unforeseen finished in the second, with Aleix Espargaró, Fabio di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli in the third and in the fourth Marco Bezzecchi, Jack Miller and an Alex Márquez who He barely did a couple of laps and did not make any time after arriving from the first classification.

2024-04-13 16:53:58
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