Austin MotoGP Warm Up: Marquez smiles, Tech3 suffers!

A pole position transformed into 4th place, official Yamahas that bring smiles back to their riders, André Iannone apparently stung by his teammate's podium in Argentina and Ducati not really more alert than in previous editions, here is the panorama of the Grand Prix of the Americas at the start of its final day.

The sky is quite cloudy but the track is very dry, the air at 15° and the ground at 17°.

Here are the references available at the start of this decisive session:

Austin MotoGP™	2017	2018
FP1	2'04.923 Maverick Vinales	2'05.530 Marc Marquez (See here)
FP2	2'04.061 Marc Marquez	2'04.599 Andrea Iannone (See here)
FP3	2'03.979 Maverick Vinales	2'04.608 Marc Marquez (See here)
FP4	2'04.201 Marc Marquez	2'04.686 Marc Marquez (See here)
Qualification 1	2'04.438 Jack Miller	2'05.169 Pol Espargaro (See here)
Qualification 2	2'02.741 Marc Marquez	2'03.658 Marc Marquez (See here)
Warm Up	2'04.070 Marc Marquez	2'04.988 Marc Marquez
Course	Marquez, Rossi, Pedrosa
All time lap record	2'02.135 Marc Marquez 2015

The usual Ducatist trio Lorenzo-Rabat-Abraham leaves the pit lane first while we discover the tire choices made by the drivers.

The hard tire seems popular at the rear and alone Dovizioso, Zarco, Petrucci, Siméon, Abraham, Bautista, Smith, Aleix Espargaro, Rins, Rabat and Lorenzo have opted for a medium, Pol Espargaro, Cal Crutchlow and Tom Luthi having chosen a soft one.

At the front, no hard points, and Dovizioso, Petrucci, Siméon, Bautista, Iannone, Nakagami, Pol Espargaro, Rossi and Lorenzo are in soft, the others in medium.

Hafiz Syahrin fell at turn number 19 on his first flying lap and was evacuated to the medical center while Scott Redding imposes the first reference in 2'08.481.

Jorge Lorenzo results Esteve Rabat in his wake and, in 2'07.192, the 2 men took the lead on the 3rd lap before Marc Marquez (on medium/hard if you followed closely) begins to accelerate in 2'06.651.

A transalpine triplet made up of Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone runs together on the track and is positioned in the top 10, 6/10 behind the leader.

Meanwhile, the latter digs in 2'06.105, 3/10 ahead Cal Crutchlow and 5/10 ahead Maverick Vinales.

Midway through the session, Jorge Lorenzo, down to 4th position, stops at his box while Marc Marquez is now 2'05. 665 then 2'04.988.

The hierarchy is then composed of Marquez, Iannone, Crutchlow, Vinales, Dovizioso, Rins, Miller, Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, the latter already appearing at 1,7 s. Johann zarco appears at this moment in 16th position, more than 2,8 seconds behind.

With a gap of 7/10 between Marc Márquez and the others, the last 2 minutes appear very bland although Johann Zarco, at the last second, reduced his gap to 1,8 seconds.

The MotoGP race will take place at 21 p.m.