MotoGP, Viñales ahead of Marquez, Dovi and Lorenzo ahead of Rossi, 8th

Austin has always been Marc Marquez’s track, but keep an eye on Maverick Viñales. Indeed, because the Spaniard has absolutely no intention of giving any quarter in Texas. In fact, the first free practice session smiled on the Yamaha rider, who set the bar at 2’04”923, about two seconds from the pole position earned last year by the five-time world champion. He was the only one to drop below 2’05”, initially using the soft tyre and then moving on to the hard one.

Number 25 is at the top, whereas the Honda standard-bearer had to settle for the second best time at more than five tenths from the Championship leader (+0.577). However, we should point out that Marc did not use the new tyre, unlike his rival, working with the same set from start to finish.  He finished the session ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (+0.681) who, in the finale, managed to snag third place from Johann Zarco (+0.867), consistently in the positions that count. Behind the Frenchman, with a gap of only 43 thousandths to bridge, was Alvaro Bautista (+0.910), feeling more and more at home astride his Ducati.

There are signs of a comeback from Jorge Lorenzo too. The Majorcan was quite a distance from the best for a long time but then, three minutes from the end, he dug in the spurs to take the sixth best time (+1.094) ahead of Pedrosa’s Honda. However, the gap is more than one second.

It was a slow start for Valentino Rossi who went out on the track with the medium tyre and then the soft. The Doctor has gotten us used to taking Friday’s performance with a grain of salt, because on Sunday he transforms. His M1 struggles particularly in the first sector, where he loses almost one second. At the end of the session he was eighth (+1.369) ahead of Aleix Espargaró’s Aprilia and Petrucci’s Pramac Ducati.

Cal Crutchlow did not make it into the top ten, eleventh and victim of a crash, with Andrea Iannone finishing only sixteenth. It was a morning to forget for the rider from Vasto, preoccupied with chassis problems on his Suzuki. He will need to do an about face as soon as possible, because the gap behind Viñales is nearly two seconds. Rins finished way behind in twentieth.