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Lewis Duncan

MotoGP Americas GP: Martin takes pole, Quartararo crashes

After Friday’s practices, many expressed concern about the pace of the Ducatis over a single lap around the Circuit of the Americas.   

After the opening flurry of laps, it was the Italian manufacturer who annexed the provisional front row of the grid. 

Jack Miller shot to the top of the order with a 2m03.327s, 0.008s clear of factory teammate Francesco Bagnaia, while Pramac’s Martin slotted into third. 

Reigning world champion Quartararo had been sat in fourth in the early stages and was on a good lap when he slid off his Yamaha at the penultimate corner.   

At the same time, Gresini’s Enea Bastianini – who tumbled at the start of Q2 at Turn 11 – moved up to fourth, with Alex Rins on the Suzuki and COTA king Marc Marquez on the Honda shuffling Quartararo down to seventh. 

Quartararo – who admitted on Friday that he was strong under braking at COTA but on the limit – was able to get back out on his second YZR-M1 for the final five minutes of Q2. But the Frenchman could do no more than to settle for sixth on the only Yamaha inside the top 12 – 0.595s adrift of the pole time.   

Bagnaia went to the top of the pile with two minutes to go on his Ducati with a lap close to the all-time COTA record – albeit on a track that has been partially resurface – before teammate Miller did beat the old record with a 2m02.042s. 

This looked set to secure Miller top spot, but he was denied at the death by Martin, who fired in a 2m02.039s to claim his second pole of the 2022 season. 

Jack Miller, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Ducati would lock-out the top five spots at the chequered flag, with Johann Zarco jumping up to fourth late in the session on the sister Pramac GP22, while Bastianini recovered to fifth ahead of Quartararo.

Rins was just 0.060s shy of a spot on the second row in seventh, with Suzuki team-mate Joan Mir eighth after his final lap.

Seven-time COTA poleman Marc Marquez failed to make any real impression on the pole battle on his return to action after two races on the sidelines due to vision problems. 

The Honda rider will start from ninth – his worst-ever COTA qualifying result – ahead of LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, the VR46 Ducati of Luca Marini and Pol Espargaro on the sister factory team Honda.

Argentina race winner Aleix Espargaro was caught up in traffic on one of his runs late on in Q2, with the Spaniard visibly frustrated as he backed off on that lap. And on the following tour as he pushed to get into Q2, he crashed at Turn 6 and was resigned to 13th on the grid having taken pole just one week ago. 

Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales’ strong Friday form disappeared on Saturday and he could do no more than 14th, with Andrea Dovizioso 15th on the RNF Racng Yamaha. 

Marco Bezzecchi will start 16th on the VR46 Ducati ahead of the struggling KTM of Brad Binder, while Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli was a disappointing 19th behind Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio

Miguel Oliveira was only 20th on the sister factory team KTM ahead of Tech3 duo Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner, who crashed early on in the first 15-minute qualifying segment. 

RNF’s Darryn Binder notched up his third crash of the weekend in Q1, leaving him last of the 24 runners behind a woefully off-the-pace Alex Marquez on the LCR Honda. 

The 2022 MotoGP Argentina GP will get underway at 2pm local time on Sunday.

Americas Grand Prix Q2 times:

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 6 2'02.039     162.626
2 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 6 2'02.042 0.003 0.003 162.622
3 Italy Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 6 2'02.167 0.128 0.125 162.456
4 France Johann Zarco Ducati 7 2'02.570 0.531 0.403 161.922
5 Italy Enea Bastianini Ducati 6 2'02.578 0.539 0.008 161.911
6 France Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 5 2'02.634 0.595 0.056 161.837
7 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 7 2'02.694 0.655 0.060 161.758
8 Spain Joan Mir Suzuki 6 2'02.947 0.908 0.253 161.425
9 Spain Marc Marquez Honda 6 2'03.038 0.999 0.091 161.306
10 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda 7 2'03.054 1.015 0.016 161.285
11 Italy Luca Marini Ducati 7 2'03.059 1.020 0.005 161.278
12 Spain Pol Espargaro Honda 6 2'03.096 1.057 0.037 161.230

Americas Grand Prix Q1 times:

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 6 2'02.487     162.031
2 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 7 2'02.723 0.236 0.236 161.720
3 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 4 2'02.922 0.435 0.199 161.458
4 Spain Maverick Viñales Aprilia 7 2'03.121 0.634 0.199 161.197
5 Italy Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha 6 2'03.133 0.646 0.012 161.181
6 Italy Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 6 2'03.328 0.841 0.195 160.926
7 South Africa Brad Binder KTM 7 2'03.467 0.980 0.139 160.745
8 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 6 2'03.576 1.089 0.109 160.604
9 Italy Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 7 2'03.579 1.092 0.003 160.600
10 Portugal Miguel Oliveira KTM 7 2'03.983 1.496 0.404 160.076
11 Spain Raúl Fernández KTM 7 2'04.140 1.653 0.157 159.874
12 Australia Remy Gardner KTM 6 2'04.185 1.698 0.045 159.816
13 Spain Alex Marquez Honda 6 2'04.229 1.742 0.044 159.759
14 South Africa Darryn Binder Yamaha 4 2'04.646 2.159 0.417 159.225
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