Marc Marquez leads crash-strewn US MotoGP Practice
Marc Marquez brushed off his massive FP1 crash to lead Friday at the US MotoGP
MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez led a crash-stewn Practice at the United States Grand Prix, following his own massive accident in FP1.
The factory Ducati rider suffered a scary 190km/h off on Friday morning at COTA in FP1, but walked away with just bruising to his hand.
After a messy start to Practice in which six of his first timed laps were scrubbed because of yellow flags, Marc Marquez began to show strong pace on the GP26.
That would ultimately culminate in a 2m00.927s, which he would set in the closing stages on soft rubber to see out the day fastest of all.
The hour-long session began with a slew of crashes, as Fabio Di Giannantonio, Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini, Franco Morbidelli, Pedro Acosta and Ai Ogura all fell inside the first 10 minutes.
In total, there would be nine fallers as track temperatures rocketed in the afternoon at COTA.
Trackhouse Aprilia’s Ogura was investigated for crashing under yellow flags seconds after Acosta had gone down at Turn 18.
But no further action was taken, with Ogura going on to finish second with a 2m00.980s, as VR46’s Di Giannantonio completed the top three.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was fourth on the factory team Aprilia, as Alex Marquez brushed off a crash to finish fifth on the Gresini Ducati.
Acosta was sixth after his earlier fall, while Martin trailed him in seventh on the sister factory Aprilia.
Pecco Bagnaia was outside of the Q2 places in the closing moments of Practice, but found a 2m01.371s to get up to eighth on the second factory team Ducati.
Honda’s Luca Marini was on course to improve on ninth but for a big scare on his final time attack.
He headed Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini, who is the team’s only representative now after Maverick Vinales withdrew due to a shoulder injury.
Joan Mir narrowly missed out on a Q2 place in 11th, with the Honda rider facing Q1 alongside the likes of Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer and Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez.
Fabio Quartararo was the leading Yamaha in 15th, 1.1s off the pace, while team-mate Alex Rins - a previous winner at COTA - was 2.1s off the pace in last.
Pramac’s Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed during Practice and was 18th on his Yamaha, 1.446s off the pace.
In this article
