The Repsol Honda Team rider set the best time in qualifying in Austin for the seventh consecutive year. Jorge Lorenzo finished eleventh in Q2.
A heavy storm forced the cancellation of FP3. FP4 started with the track still wet, although it would dry up as the session progressed.
Marc Márquez was the fastest in FP4, almost two seconds quicker than his nearest rival.
Lorenzo clocked the fastest time in Q1, but experienced a problem with his bike after his first lap in Q2. He was able to return to his garage by running through pit lane, and would eventually set the 11th best lap, on his penultimate attempt.
Márquez topped the timesheets in qualifying, claiming his seventh consecutive pole position at the Circuit of the Americas. His pole time came from the second of the six laps he completed.
MARC MÁRQUEZ | 1st
“I’m happy to be on pole position but for tomorrow nothing is certain yet. Today we were fastest and got pole, but no one knows about race pace or tyres yet as we lost FP3. We will have to work well in Warm Up to make up for the time we sadly lost to the weather. After Warm Up we will know more but there are many people who could be in the fight.”
JORGE LORENZO | 11th
“A challenging day today with the weather where we unfortunately lost some time. I was feeling strong in Q1 and pushed hard to get through. Then we had an issue in Q2 which upset our plan. The other bike had a different setting as we are trying a lot of different things so we couldn’t unlock our full potential. Tomorrow will be a physical race, it always is here.”
