The Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) achieved a new record with a lap literally unattainable for his rivals in the official round for the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas classification at the COTA circuit in Austin.
Martín lapped in 2:01.397, which broke last year’s record set by the Italian Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) at 2:01.892, to beat a ‘powerful Maverick Viñales’ by just 76 thousandths of a second. (Aprilia RS-GP) who was the protagonist throughout the day by always riding among the fastest, and with Marc Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), third at 409 thousandths of a second, his fastest lap ever given on his ‘talisman’ circuit .
Up to four drivers, including the Italian Bagnaia, lapped below last year’s recordalready with the debutant Pedro ‘Tiburón’ Acosta (Gas Gas RC 16) in fifth place as the best representative of the Austrian manufacturer.
It didn’t take long for Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) to show his cards by riding his third lap in 2:03.036, followed at 49 thousandths of a second by Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP), who had been the fastest in the morning session, and the ‘rookie’ of the category, Pedro ‘Tiburón’ Acosta (Gas Gas RC 16).
Viñales also focused his initial work on achieving a good lap pace using tires with the intermediate compound.to take a step forward in his second outing on the track with new set-up changes that were not so successful initially, but which shortly after they allowed him to improve his personal best time to be the first to ride in 2:02 (2:02.983).
Marc Márquez improves
Who also took an important step forward was Marc Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), who was eighth in the morning with 2:04.003, but already on his fifth lap he lapped in 2:03.264, to move up to third position.
The first position did not last long for Viñales, who From behind he saw how Jorge Martín took first place from him when riding the soft tire, 2:02.888, and the Italian Enea Bastianini also surpassed him (Ducati Desmosedici GP24).
To those first positions in the table tBoth Acosta and the Italian Franco Morbidelli (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) also came close, surpassing Marc Márquezwho chose to enter his workshop at that moment to make a new tire change and make some modifications to the settings of his Ducati.
Who also had his problems was the current world champion, the Italian Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP24), who had a hard time keeping up with the leading riders, although he rose to tenth place, the last one with the right to compete for the second direct MotoGP classification.
Lap after lap Bagnaia rose positions to reach sixth position, At that moment, the Italian, informed from his workshop, entered the workshop street to change his motorcycle.
Viñales, ‘on fire’
On the third outing on the track it didn’t take long Maverick Viñales in exhibiting a very good pace by lapping in 2:02.394 and thus getting closer to the circuit record, which Bagnaia has at 2:01.892 since last year.
The Aprilia rider chained a series of fast laps, reaching a time of 2:02.085, but behind him Jorge Martín literally flew over the American track to establish a new absolute record in 2:01.397, almost half a second (495 thousandths of a second) faster than ‘Pecco’s previous mark.
After Martín there was a Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP) who for the first time was among the fastest, while his teammate Maverick Viñales had his fastest lap annulled for exceeding the track limits in turn nineteen of the layout, the one before the entrance to the finish line.
In just a few seconds Maverick Viñales had gone from first to seventh position. New step through your workshop to ‘find’ those tenths of a second to improve in the classification, although Jorge Martín’s ‘great time’ was going to be very difficult to beat.
Fall of Mir
In the fourth and last outing on the track, many drivers tried to follow the slipstream of their rivals, as in the case of the Spanish Joan Mir (Honda RC 213 V) which ended on the ground in turn fifteen without the possibility of finishing the round when the windscreen and upper part of the fairing was ‘teared off’ in the mishap when he was riding behind a large group of drivers led by ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia.
The yellow flag for Mir’s fall hurt several drivers, who saw their fastest laps annulled. but without anyone being able to beat the time of Jorge Martín, who led the table ahead of the Spaniards Maverick Viñales and Marc Márquez, with ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia fourth ahead of the Spaniards Pedro Acosta and Aleix Espargaró, and the Italians Franco Morbidelli, Enea Bastianini, Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi, who are the ones who are guaranteed a place in the second classification.
From the first classification The Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia RS-GP), the Spanish Raúl Fernández (Aprilia RS-GP), Alex Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), Augusto Fernández (Gas Gas RC 16), Alex Rins (Yamaha YZR M) should seek to improve their classification 1) and Joan Mir, or the South African Brad Binder and the Australian Jack Millerofficial KTM riders.
