Honda’s Marc Marquez pipped Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales to pole position in a thrilling qualifying session, with Valentino Rossi completing the front row.
Marquez has never been beaten in Texas on a Saturday, but that record looked seriously under threat as Vinales set the timing screens ablaze in practice. Wasting no time, Marquez made his intentions plain from the start, going top with a 2m03.042s on his second flying lap.
Vinales countered this with a 2m02.871s on his final lap, his third pole of 2017 almost a done deal. However, Marquez, a few corners behind, had illuminated the timing screens red in the first three sectors.
Despite closing right onto the back of Rossi, who took the chequered flag for his first front row of the year, Marquez had enough time in hand to post a 2m02.741s for his fifth successive pole at the Circuit of the Americas and his 67th overall.
Dani Pedrosa heads the second row of the grid with Tech 3’s Johann Zarco close behind in fifth. Jorge Lorenzo, who came through the first part of qualifying, put in his best performance on the Ducati to go sixth quickest ahead of team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.
Jonas Folger guided the sister Tech 3 Yamaha to eighth on the grid, with Cal Crutchlow ninth after a late tumble at Turn 11. Scott Redding, Andrea Iannone and Jack Miller, the latter two also visiting COTA’s gravel traps, complete the top 12.
Redding’s Pramac team-mate Danilo Petrucci missed out on a spot on QP2 by half a second, and was lucky to hold onto 13th spot after Loris Baz made a critical error on his final flying lap.
The French rider was on a stellar lap which threatened a spot in QP2, but pushed the front of his GP15 too hard into the final corner. Unbelievably, however, Baz managed to keep his bike upright and held onto the handlebars when the it tried to spit him into the scenery.
Twitter: Nooooo!
Save of the season from @lorisbaz as he was on his way to a near certain Q2 position! #AmericasGP https://t.co/5bSzJvcE06 (@MotoGP)
Despite his woes, Baz still out-qualified team-mate Hector Barbera, with the recovering Tito Rabat taking his Marc VDS Honda to 16th on the grid.
Karel Abraham, suffering from a hairline fracture in his ankle after colliding with Aspar team-mate Alvaro Bautista in FP2, gritted his teeth to go three tenths clear of the Spaniard in 17th. KTM’s Bradley Smith split the Aspar duo for his best qualifying result of the season.
Aprilia’s Sam Lowes headed the luckless Espargaro brothers, whose sessions were curtailed by falls at the first and second corners respectively.
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