Maverick Vinales has taken pole at COTA under controversial circumstances, after on-the-road pole-man Marc Marquez received a three-pace grid penalty for blocking Vinales during Q2.
Marquez managed to set a blistering time of 2m 03.658s lap around the 3.4 mile circuit to originally head Vinales and Andrea Iannone’s Suzuki, who now starts second.
The reigning world champion received his grid drop due to coasting on the racing line through turn 12 just as Vinales was coming up behind on a provisional fastest lap of the session.
Vinales was visibly annoyed as he was forced to abandon the lap, but still managed to bag a provisional second, which now becomes pole position.
Marquez’s Austin pole streak therefore comes to an end, although the Spaniard will still target extending his COTA win streak to six tomorrow afternoon.
Johann Zarco kept up his rapid 2018 form by putting his Tech 3 Yamaha third while Valentino Rossi starts fifth on the second factory Yamaha.
Jorge Lorenzo enjoyed a positive session by out-qualifying his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso for the first time this year, bagging a sixth place start while Dovizioso could only manage eighth behind Cal Crutchlow in seventh.
Dani Pedrosa meanwhile put in a heroic performance to put his Honda inside the top ten despite suffering with the broken wrist injury he picked up in an incident with Johann Zarco in Argentina, while Danilo Petrucci managed to clear Q1 and qualify tenth.
Pol Espargaro joined Petrucci in advancing from Q1, but could only manage P12 in the end behind Alex Rins on the second of the Suzuki GSX-RR’s.
Takaaki Nakagami managed to end the session as top rookie in 13th position, the Japanese rider just missing out on a place in Q2.
