Moto GP – GP of Americas – Qualifying

After a long waiting, the Motorbike world championship finally arrives to America for this year´s GP of Americas. Returning to COTA. A race that marks the 15th race of the calendar and could mean an inflection point for the championship if Quartararo and Yamaha can finish a great result on this weekend.

The first qualy session saw Joan Mir and Aleix Espargaro as the riders that usually have to make double qualy session on every race weekend. With Alex Marquez, Lecuona, Marini and Oliveria as posible challengers that could get a spot on the next session, First attempts saw Joan Mir and Franco Morbidelli at the two first spots respectively, followed closely by Alex Marquez, Marini, Rossi and Lecuona, There were some incidents on track, as Aleix Espargaro and Oliveira went to the ground at the first minutes of the session.
The final attempts were live, as it looked like Mir would take the first spot on Q2, it was Luca Marini who took a the first place with a late charge that made him and Mir get trough next session, great performance of Andrea Dovizioso as almost making the next session on a bike that barely knows about.
Q1 Results:
13. Andrea Dovizioso ///14. Alex Marquez /// 15. Enea Bastianini
16. Iker Lecuona /// 17. Miguel Oliveira /// 18. Aleix Espargaro
19. Valentino Rossi /// 20. Danilo Petrucci
The second qualy session saw one main question aamong the others, if someone was able to break Marc Marquez pole streak at cota. As the Honda rider was leading on the first attempts on track, as Jorge Martin was in 2nd and Takaaki Nakagami was looking strong on 3rd. There was a lot of parity at track between the riders participating.
With a few minutes to go, Marc was still looking strong at the standings, but then a stoming lap from the Italian rider on the Ducati saw Francesco Bagnaia storming through the track and demolishing the fastest track by almost half a second. At the end, the closest rider to that time was Fabio Quartararo, but even the Frenchman was unable to keep up for the pole position, Marquez closes the first line and for the first time, wont be the poleman at COTA. Jorge Martin, Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco closed the 2nd line respectively.
Q2 Results:
1. Francesco Bagnaia /// 2. Fabio Quartararo /// 3. Marc Marquez
4. Jorge Martin /// 5. Takaaki Nakagami /// 6. Johann Zarco
7. Alex Rins /// 8. Joan Mir /// 9. Luca Marini
10. Jack Miller /// 11. Brad Binder /// 12. Pol Espargaro
Triple consecutive pole position for Bagnaia, as Ducati keeps the presure on Quartararo and Yamaha, as they still on control of the championship. They´ll need to keep focus in order to be closer of the drivers championship, as they are less races left. We´ll see if the can keep the composture on tomorrow´s race.