Texas MotoGP: Marquez blitzes opposition on opening day

Marc Marquez has blitzed the opposition on the opening day of the Texan MotoGP round, ending the day over a second faster than the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso, in a ride sure to demoralise his rivals at the track where he took his maiden MotoGP win a year ago.

The rookie champion established himself as the clear favourite to repeat the win by lapping in 2’03.490, 1.005 faster than Dovizioso, who took advantage of the softer tyres available to the Ducatis to take second from Dani Pedrosa, 0.12 back from the Italian.

Andrea Iannone was also running well in fourth, also making the most of the softer compound Bridgestone available to the non-factory bikes, although it was of less use to Cal Crutchlow back in ninth, with the Brit unleashing an angry outburst after the first session about the Bologna team.

“I can’t turn. We have too much understeer and I am fighting with the bike in every corner. The bike feels really heavy to change direction and you can’t make the corner. I could see clearly with Valentino in front of me I lost 10-15kph in one corner and last year this was my strongest area. We are struggling with the normal things of this bike but the stopping is good and I am not too bad in acceleration.”

Valentino Rossi was fifth, the best of the Yamahas, while his teammate Jorge Lorenzo continues to struggle with tyres, running for a long time near the cut-off point for the Q2 session before ending up in 8th.

Aleix Espargaro continued to impress in sixth, and was the fastest rider through the last sector of the track, faster than Stefan Bradl.

Bradley Smith made it into Q2 by finishing tenth, only just 0.08 clear of Alvaro Bautista, with Scott Redding 13th, ahead of Nicky Hayden in 14th again, while Michael Laverty out-paced his teammate Broc Parkes for the PBM Aprilia pair to finish in 21st and 22nd.

1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 2’03.490 
2 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 2’04.495 1.005 / 1.005
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 2’04.623 1.133 / 0.128
4 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati  2’04.669 1.179 / 0.046
5 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 2’04.793 1.303 / 0.124
6 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 2’04.844 1.354 / 0.051
7 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 2’04.870 1.380 / 0.026
8 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 2’04.976 1.486 / 0.106
9 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati  2’04.981 1.491 / 0.005
10 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 2’05.366 1.876 / 0.385
11 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 2’05.453 1.963 / 0.087
12 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 2’05.672 2.182 / 0.219
13 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 2’05.937 2.447 / 0.265
14 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda  2’06.188 2.698 / 0.251
15 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 2’06.376 2.886 / 0.188
16 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha  2’06.880 3.390 / 0.504
17 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda  2’07.034 3.544 / 0.154
18 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 2’07.053 3.563 / 0.019
19 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Avintia 315.9 2’07.211 3.721 / 0.158
20 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA IodaRacing Project ART 2’08.379 4.889 / 1.168
21 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 2’08.973 5.483 / 0.594
22 23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 2’09.004 5.514 / 0.031
23 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia  2’09.247 5.757 / 0.243