Marquez continues to control for pole

Marc Marquez has continued to control at Austin, by taking pole positions for tomorrow’s race at the Circuit of the Americas and firmly establishing himself as the favourite, as he aims to make it four in a row.

The double world champion controlled the session despite a brief interlude from Jorge Lorenzo, but a fast lap on his first tyre have him the P1 spot even if he couldn’t go as fast as he would have liked.

“I’m really happy with pole position, and I feel really good in America it seems! It looks like the pace is good, and both the Yamaha riders are closer, but I didn’t make the perfect lap. Jorge will be closer, but we will manage the race well.”

Lorenzo was second, just behind teammate Valentino Rossi, who has continued to improve his qualifying performance in 2016.

Andrea Iannone finished the session in fourth, but a three-place penalty from last time out in Argentina demoted him to seventh and handed the second row to Maverick Viñales, Cal Crutchlow and teammate Andrea Dovizioso.

Dani Pedrosa and Aleix Espargaro were eighth and ninth, while Scott Redding rounded out the top ten, just ahead of Bradley Smith. Eugene Laverty had another strong qualifying to finish in fifteenth.