Marc Marquez took pole at Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, Texas for the Americas GP, his sixth successive pole at the circuit.
Q1 began slowly, with Hafizh Syahrin being the fastest rider with 10 minutes left. A very heavy crash for Karel Abraham left him in some discomfort and put him out of contention with 8 minutes left of the session. It all exploded in the final three minutes, with Danilo Petrucci setting the fastest time and seeing him safely through. Behind this, we had an Espargaro brothers train, with Aleix towing along a group of six riders, one of whom was Pol, who then set the fastest time of the session to go though to Q2 alongside Petrucci, with Takaaki Nakagami agonisingly missing out on progression by 0.002 seconds.
Q2 began with Cal Crutchlow leading out the pack, but it was Alex Rins who set the fastest of the first laps. Then Valentino Rossi took pole, and held it for all of five seconds before Marc Marquez snatched it off him. It remained this way with 10 minutes left, as Marquez improved on his fastest time. Then, drama! Marquez took liberties with the front end at turn 13, and paid the price as it washed away and put him into the gravel. There were just six minutes remaining when he hopped onto his spare bike and went for his out lap. Maverick Vinales was on pole position schedule with just two minutes remaining, when he encountered a dawdling Marquez on the racing line. Vinales lost his lap, and justifiably was angry with his fellow Spaniard, gesticulating angrily in his direction. The next lap Vinales did take the pole position, but less than 10 seconds later he was bumped down to second by Marquez, where he would remain. Andrea Iannone did enough to take the final front row slot on his Suzuki, ahead of top independent rider Johann Zarco on the Tech 3 Yamaha. Championship leader Crutchlow ended up in 7th place.
For full Q1 results click here.
For full Q2 results click here.
EDIT: After the qualifying sessions, Marquez was given a three place grid penalty for his part in the incident with Vinales, and will start from P4. He was punished for riding slowly.
