Marc Marquez decimated the competition in Austin, again, with his best time of 2:04.034 being a massive 0.706 faster than Andrea Iannone in second. If anyone were to be crowned king of COTA it would be Marquez as there have only been three sessions in total in which he hasn’t topped the timing sheets since MotoGP first came to Austin in 2013.
Although everyone improved their times from FP1, Marquez’s best lap was still half a second off of the circuit record, and nearly two seconds slower than his pole time of last year. Marquez was the only rider to come close to breaking the 2:04 barrier, but crashed finding the limits.
Third fastest today is Maverick Vinales who continues to impress on his Suzuki. Scott Redding shook off a nightmare journey from Argentina and illness to finish fourth quickest. Jorge Lorenzo ends the day in fifth, down on his second position from FP1.
The only person who came close to challenging Marquez was Valentino Rossi who ends the day in sixth. Making a late charge, he had set the fastest sectors one and two before out-braking himself in sector three losing a second before the end of the lap.
Loris Baz found a massive 2.316 seconds on his time from FP1 to end the day in seventh on his Avintia Ducati. Dani Pedrosa’s troubles continue in eighth position, the Spaniard visibly frustrated with his Repsol Honda when he ran wide during FP2.
Andrea Dovizioso ends the day in ninth, down on his fifth place this morning. Cal Crutchlow improves to 10th fastest overall. Hector Barbera is in 11th, stand in Ducati rider Michele Pirro in 12th. Espargaros Pol and Aleix are in 13th and 14th respectively, with Yonny Hernandez in 15th. Testing his new Brembo brakes to the limit, Hernandez had a massive moment at the end of the back straight in FP1 where he almost rammed the back of Pedrosa.
Fresh from his fourth position in Argentina, Eugene Laverty ended the day in 16th. The Irish rider lost the front at high speed in turn two during FP2, fortunately without injury. Stefan Bradl is in 17th, with Alvaro Bautista in 18th. Bradley Smith seems to be having a torrid time ending the day in 19th. His team insist, however, that he is just putting in the laps finding the optimum set up and is primed to put in a quick time tomorrow.
Jack Miller is walking wounded in 20th. The Aussie had a vicious high side in turn 18 in FP1. Obviously in a lot of pain it was a while before he was moved. He was seen going for a scan on his feet, and although he was passed fit to ride with no obvious injuries, he will no doubt be feeling the force of it.
Tito Rabat brings up the rear of the grid.
FP3 will take place at 1555 BST tomorrow. FP4 follows at 1930, with Q1 at 2010 and Q2 at 2035.
