MotoGP Austin FP LIVE: 4 out of 4 for Ducati!

The cat is not there and the mice are dancing, in the absence of Marc Marquez author of 7 victories on thehe 9 pre-existing editions of the Grand Prix of the Americas on the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas!

To start with George Martin, holder of the circuit record since his pole position last year with a time of 2'02.039, which he almost equaled on the first day thanks to a 2'02.178 at the end of P2. The Spaniard is not the only Ducati to shine, since there are four in the first five, with one Francis Bagnaia visibly very strong and eager to redeem himself from his Argentinian blunder, an attitude shared to a lesser extent by Luca marini, And a Alex Marquez always present since his time at Borgo Panigale.

In the middle of a quartet, and he's perhaps the man of the first day, alex rins reminds us of two things: that the Honda is far from bad on this heterogeneous track, but above all that it has already won in all categories! To be continued, just like Joan mir who accidentally found the motorcycle of Johann zarco at the end of P2…

Yesterday morning in P1, Luca marini, fabio quartararo, Johann zarco, Alex Marquez, Jack Miller, George Martin, Francis Bagnaia, alex rins et Takaaki Nakagami had provisionally qualified for Q2.

The afternoon in P2, we therefore found most of these names with George Martin, Francis Bagnaia, alex rins, Luca marini, Alex Marquez, Maverick Vinales, fabio quartararo, Brad Binder, Alex Espargaro et Jack Miller finally going directly to Q2.

Of the four absent due to injury in Argentina, Espargaro Pol, Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira et Marc Marquez, only the Portuguese driver returned to the American coral after his injury to a tendon in his right leg, falling again twice in P2 but showing interesting velocity throughout the day.

With Johann zarco et Marco Bezzecchi, But also Miguel Oliveira et Joan mir, Q1 promises to be lively…

While waiting for the real action to resume, the 30-minute FP seems like a sort of haven of peace, with no real issue other than the choice of tires.

Weather-wise, as expected, the weekend is improving but now presents cloudy skies and temperatures of 23° in the air and 26° on the ground with some humid areas.

As the 22 drivers prepare for this 30-minute FP session, let's take advantage of these few live moments thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

MotoGP™ Austin, Texas, USA	2022	2023
P1	2'04.007 Alex Rins (See here)	2'03.250 Luca Marini (See here)
P2	2'02.542 Johann Zarco (See here)	2'02.178 Jorge Martin (See here)
FP	2'02.361 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	2'03.295 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)
FP4	2'02.983 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	XXXXXXX
Q1	2'02487 Jorge Martin (See here)	(See here)
Q2	2'02.039 Jorge Martin (See here)	(See here)
Sprint	XXXXXXX	(See here)
Warm up	2'03.647 Maverick Vinales (See here)	(See here)
Course	Bastianini, Rins, Miller (See here)	(See here)
All time lap record	2'02.039 Jorge Martin 2022 (See here)

When the red lights go out... It's this time Fabio Di Giannantonio who rushes first in front Luca marini.

In terms of tires, the rear stand is unanimous, while all the options are used for the front.

At the end of the first round, Takaaki Nakagami makes a minor mistake while George Martin registered the first reference in 2'04.766.

The circuit record holder then precedes Jack Miller, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Miguel Oliveira, Alex Marquez and Luca Marini.

In the next passage, Fabio DiGiannantonio registered 2'04.574 before being overtaken by Jack Miller in 2'04.397.

The latter then lost control of his KTM at turn #8 while fabio quartararo takes provisional command in 2'04.144.

The times continue to go down and Alex Marquez displays 2'03.380 in front Fabio Quartararo, Marco Bezzecchi, Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia.

George Martin and Francesco bagnaia progress and complete a Ducati trio as we approach mid-session where the hierarchy looks like this: Alex Márquez, Jorge Martin, Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Johann Zarco, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Rins, Miguel Oliveira, Jack Miller, Franco Morbidelli, Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales, Raul Fernandez, Stefan Bradl, Joan Mir, Augusto Fernandez, Brad Binder, Michele Pirro, Luca Marini, Jonas Folger and Takaaki Nakagami who still has not recorded a time.

On resumption, Marco Bezzecchi rises to fourth position, thus forming a Ducati quartet at the top of the ranking.

Francis Bagnaia continued his effort and took the lead in 2'03.295 four minutes from the checkered flag.

Luca marini, who has only completed five laps, positions himself fourth then third and thus inaugurates a quintet of Borgo Panigale.

In extremis, fabio quartararo manages to break this Ducati hegemony a little.

MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas FP results at Circuit of the Americas in Austin:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com