After a half an hour session to adjust to the days conditions, the MotoGP riders headed straight into qualifying for the United States Grand Prix at COTA. Fermín Aldeguer and Joan Mir flew through Q1 to advance, but ultimately Fabio Di Giannantonio took pole. Achieving a new lap record, the Italian takes back-to-back pole positions.
Yamaha Struggles in Q1
From the get go, Joan Mir was setting the pace throughout Q1. Whilst Toprak Razgatlıoğlu was the first to set a quick lap and went top, both Mir and Raúl Fernández were able to go ahead of the rookie rider. For the majority of the session, this pairing would maintain the advancing spots and continue to improve.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team struggled throughout the session, with Álex Rins and Fabio Quartararo unable to find any pace around the track. Quartararo also brought out the only yellow flag, with an unusual crash in Turn 15. As he lost the front of the bike, he got off the machine as it was going down. Luckily, the #20 was unharmed but he was briefly stranded on track. Whilst Quartararo would improve to fourth and narrowly miss out on Q2, Rins remained at the bottom of the pack, almost two seconds off the pace.
As the session drew to a close, both Mir and Fernández were able to improve their laps. However, Fernández was bumped from advancing by Fermín Aldeguer. The BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP rider struggled during yesterday’s sessions, but in his final lap something clicked. A lap of 2:00.977 saw him top the group and almost match Marc Márquez’s best time in practice yesterday.
Q2 Sees Consecutive Poles for Di Giannantonio
Francesco Bagnaia came out quick straight away. Usually known to improve throughout his qualifying runs, today he immediately went fastest. Bagnaia went to provisional pole with a new lap record of 2:00.815. But, as the session progressed the times only got quicker.
After an impressive show in Q1, Joan Mir was the first to best Bagnaia, finding two tenths over the Ducati Lenovo Team rider. He narrowly missed being affected by the yellow flag caused by Enea Bastianini’s Turn 15 crash. Although he initially looked faster, traffic across the track consistently affected Marc Márquez.
Traffic was the main issue in Q2, with many drivers having to back out of quick laps due to riders head of them. Whilst Bastianini initially impeded M. Márquez, the #93 impeded him a few laps later and officials may look into it. Both Bagnaia and Ai Ogura are also under investigation for Ogura impeding the #63.
As the riders set off on their final qualifying attempt, Mir remained in provision pole position. However, he was unable to improve and ultimately qualified P5. For the second week in a row, Fabio Di Giannantonio claimed pole position. With Marco Bezzecchi ahead taking a brief P1, Di Giannantonio was the last to set a lap. With a time of 2:00.136 he set a new all time lap record and went 0.193 seconds ahead of the field.
Un Unconfirmed Grid For The United States Grand Prix
Despite qualifying being over, officials are yet to confirm the grid for the races. Considering the amount of impeding during the session, there could be penalties to come. King of COTA, M. Márquez is due to start on the second row, but with his incident with Bastianini looming over, he could find himself even further back.
Di Giannantonio is joined on the front row by Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta. Last weekend, Bezzecchi bested the #49 on the race starts, will the same happen this week? Up next is the sprint race, who will come out on top?