Marc Marquez In Circuit of The Americas

 

Marquez Untouchable On Friday in Texas

Maec Marquez set a best time of 2’03.490s to lead the way at the state-of-the-art track in Texas where he took his first premier class victory in 2013 and on Saturday he will be a clear favourite to repeat his pole position from last year. Indeed Marquez set his best Friday time on a hard tyre and was less than 0.5s from his own pole record set on a medium tyre 12 months ago.

Ducati Team’s Dovizioso was the ‘best of the rest’ using a softer tyre, whilst Marquez led his Repsol Honda teammate Pedrosa by 1.133s. Like Dovizioso his Italian compatriot and fellow Ducati rider Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) made use of a soft compound to lap fourth quickest.

The best of the Yamaha riders was Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) at a circuit which he admits he found tricky last season. The nine-time World Champion trailed Marquez by 1.3s.

The impressive Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) lapped sixth quickest on the ‘Open’ Yamaha and outpaced Factory-equipped rivals Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in seventh and eighth respectively.

Lorenzo was apparently unable to make the most of the re-introduced 2013-spec Bridgestone tyre which has been brought to this round and for which he stated a preseason preference over the 2014 version.

Britons Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) rounded out the top ten behind Lorenzo.

Free Practice I MotoGP 2014 Austin :

1. Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team 2m 4,704s
2. Aleix Espargaro Forward Racing 2m 5,591s
3. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 2m 5,676s
4. Valentino Rossi Movistar Yamaha2m 5,972s
5. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m 6,279s
6. Bradley Smith Yamaha Tech 3 2m 6,336s
7. Cal Crutchlow Ducati Team 2m 6,433s
8. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m 6,537s
9. Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing 2m 6,602s
10.Alvaro Bautista Honda Gresini 2m 6,633s
11.Pol Espargaro Yamaha Tech 3 2m 6,680s
12.Jorge Lorenzo Movistar Yamaha 2m 6,771s
13.Nicky Hayden Drive M7 Aspar 2m 7,450s
14.Colin Edwards Forward Racing 2m 7,644s
15.Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing 2m 7,689s
16.Karel Abraham AB Motoracing 2m 7,702s
17.Hector Barbera Avintia Racing 2m 8,150s
18.Hiroshi Aoyama M7 Aspar 2m 8,455s
19.Scott Redding Honda Gresini 2m 8,588s
20.Danilo Petrucci IodaRacing Project 2m 9,646s
21.Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport 2m 10,206s
22.Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport 2m 10,493s
23.Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing 2m 11,100s