Alex Marquez headed championship leader team-mate Franco Morbidelli to a Marc VDS one-two in second practice to top the combined times on Friday in Texas.
Marquez comes into this weekend off the back of bitter disappointment when he crashed out of second place whilst fighting for the win with Morbidelli on the final lap in Argentina, but doesn’t seem to have let that affect him today.
The Spaniard got off to a steady start this morning, the condition of the Circuit of the Americas keeping the pace from being anything special. Marquez ended FP1 fourth fastest, and was able to find a second in the afternoon to go three tenths clear of the field with a 2m10.601s.
Marcel Schrotter will be incredibly happy with his day’s work, the German guiding his Dynavolt Intact Suter to third on the timesheets, 0.005s outside of Morbidelli’s time. KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, who topped FP1, ends the day fourth overall ahead of Tom Luthi.
Mattia Pasini once again put in a decent performance on his Italtrans Kalex to keep the leaders at arms length in sixth, with Hafizh Syahrin showing a good upturn in form in seventh ahead of Fabio Quartararo, who found 1.7s between FP1 and FP2.
Ricky Cardus has been called up to replace Brad Binder, who underwent surgery on his broken arm following the Argentine Grand Prix. Despite a small off at the start of the session, the Spaniard was ninth fastest ahead of Takaaki Nakagami.
Sandro Cortese will be left baffled at the half a second deficit to team-mate Schrotter down in 11th, whilst Francesco Bagnaia will be pleased with his effort in 12th. Xavier Simeon brushed of an early crash to end the day 13th, with Xavi Vierge and Jorga Navarro completing the top 15.
