Marc Márquez takes MotoGP pole in Austin, Viñales 2nd and Rossi 3rd

The MotoGP World Championship has battled it out for pole position at the Austin Circuit. In this third round we have seen plenty of action among the riders of the premier class, so there was total anticipation among everyone in Q1 and Q2.

First to head out were the riders who had not made it into the top 10 of the combined MotoGP times and who had to compete in Q1, in order to secure one of the two spots that go through to Q2 and the fight for the top 12 on the grid for this third race of the season. With 7 minutes to go, we saw Miller and Lorenzo in the first two positions, while several riders went down on track, including Aleix and Pol Espargaró.

In the end, Miller and Lorenzo managed to advance to Q2, although Jorge saw his position come under threat in the final minutes from Loris Baz, but the Frenchman could not attack on the last corner, when he saved a crash at the last moment. So the middle-to-back part of the grid was completed with Petrucci 13th, Baz 14th, Barberá 15th, Rabat 16th, Abraham 17th, Smith 18th, Bauti 19th, Lowes 20th, Pol 21st, Aleix 22nd.

And the moment of truth had arrived, Q2, in which the 12 best riders fought to secure the first positions on the grid for this third race of the season. In the early minutes we saw Márquez take the lead at one of his talisman circuits, while we watched Miller crash and Viñales get angry with Rossi for getting in the way on his fast lap.

The final lap was brutal, Márquez and Mack both came in on red, chasing pole position, but in the end Márquez literally flew, setting a time of 2:02.741, while in second place was Viñales, who finished 0.130s behind the leader. The top 12 was completed with Rossi 3rd, Pedrosa 4th, Zarco 5th, Lorenzo 6th, Dovi 7th, Folger 8th, Crutchlow 9th, Redding 10th, Iannone 11th and 12th Miller.

Heading into the race, with Márquez from pole, his fifth in Austin for the 93.

Photo | MotoGP Official website and teams