Austin MotoGP qualifying
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Well, it's a wrap for our live coverage for today - but you should keep an eye out on Autosport and Motorsport.com for post-session reaction and any further developments as they come in.
Goodbye for now.![Austin MotoGP: Marquez on pole, but under investigation]()
Goodbye for now.
No decision has been announced to us yet, although Marquez doesn't look too worried. If he's keeping this pole, it's his sixth in a row in Austin - a frankly remarkable achievement.
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Quote
Marquez: "Here in Austin is a good circuit for me, so I enjoyed a lot, I did a good laptime, a good day. I think all the fans enjoyed because I crashed, I go out again with the second bike - but anyway I was happy, I start first, tomorrow will be the race."
Tomorrow will indeed be the race. Can't argue there.
Tomorrow will indeed be the race. Can't argue there.
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Vinales: "Yeah, I really like Austin, honestly it's an amazing track, I really love to ride here, I'm so happy to recover again my feeling in such a special track for me. We have a good rhythm, I think tomorrow we can be fighting for the race, we're going to try hard."
No mention of the Marquez incident, but the two riders did shake hands about it.
No mention of the Marquez incident, but the two riders did shake hands about it.
Quote
Iannone: "Fortunately we come back on the first row. It's one of the targets for us this weekend, because in the first two race I start from the back position and I struggle a lot during the race.
"Here from the first practice I have a good feeling from the bike, we improve a little bit - not a lot, but we improve.- and this is the most important.
"In any case I think tomorrow is a really really difficult race. I think six, seven riders have a really good pace, an incredible battle, I hope for us it's a really good race and we finish on a good position."
"Here from the first practice I have a good feeling from the bike, we improve a little bit - not a lot, but we improve.- and this is the most important.
"In any case I think tomorrow is a really really difficult race. I think six, seven riders have a really good pace, an incredible battle, I hope for us it's a really good race and we finish on a good position."
The top three have all made it to parc ferme now, but there's been no resolution to the investigation just yet. Vinales and Marquez are standing within metres of each other, but neither has acknowledged the other guy's existence just yet.
Replays are showing the Vinales/Marquez incident, and it's not looking great for Marquez, to be honest. It didn't look intentional or anything, but there is no question that he impeded Vinales - who then showed great mental fortitude to regroup and put in that lap for second place.
Information
Q2 results: 1 Marquez; 2 Vinales; 3 Iannone; 4 Zarco; 5 Rossi; 6 Lorenzo; 7 Crutchlow; 8 Dovizioso; 9 Pedrosa; 10 Petrucci; 11 Rins; 12 P Espargaro.
None of the aforementioned riders improve on their post-chequered flag laps, although Vinales comes up just a tenth short of his previous effort. So Marquez is on pole... but is he keeping it?
Crash
"The incident involving Marc Marquez and Maverick Vinales is currently under investigation."
Marquez, Vinales, Rossi, Iannone have all made it across the line in time, and they're all having another go.
Checkered flag
Because Marquez immediately crosses the start-finish line to post a 2m03.658s, four tenths clear of Vinales.
Chequered flag now.
Chequered flag now.
Stopwatch
Vinales sticks it into P1, 2m04.064s. But it's not for long.
In the meantime, Zarco has gone second, 0.175s off. He's now usurped by Lorenzo - and then by Rossi, who comes up 0.095s short of Marquez.
Hard to tell if Vinales was on a potential pole lap there, but he wasn't far off, it was looking decent. This will be a major post-session talking point, you'd suspect.
Crash
Vinales comes up on a cruising Marquez in the final sector! He has to abandon the lap as a result - and he's seriously not happy.
Vinales is kicking off the second runs, and is running all by his lonesome - and he's looking quick.
Marquez is back out on track with four minutes left on the clock, as are all of the other 11 riders.
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Marquez is getting a lift back to the pits from a man in dressed Marc VDS garb, identified by comms as Alex Marquez's rider coach
Information
Current order: 1 Marquez; 2 Rossi; 3 Crutchlow; 4 Zarco; 5 Iannone; 6 Pedrosa; 7 Lorenzo; 8 Vinales; 9 Rins; 10 Petrucci; 11 Dovizioso; 12 P Espargaro.
Crash
And he's chucked it down the road at Turn 13! These past third minutes have been peak Marc Marquez.
Marquez had a moment at the hairpin-like Turn 11 en route to that laptime, so he can clearly go even quicker - and it looks like he will.
Stopwatch
And here he is - 2m04.134s from Marc Marquez, four tenths clear of Rossi.
Rossi leads Zarco and Lorenzo after the first round of laps, but we're still waiting on Marquez.
Marquez heading out last, as he's probably quite keen to avoid anyone following him.
Green flag
Q2 is live, 15 minutes to decide pole.
Information
Q2 line-up: Iannone, Marquez, Vinales, Rossi, Zarco, Crutchlow, Rins, Dovizioso, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, P Espargaro, Petrucci.
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The moment @TitoRabat knew he chance of a Q2 place was over 😣😲
#AmericasGP
A big result for KTM - the Austrian marque was looking in dire straits on Friday, but found sudden pace in FP4, and Espargaro made it count.
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Information
Q1 results: 1 P Espargaro; 2 Petrucci; 3 Nakagami; 4 Rabat; 5 Smith; 6 Syahrin; 7 Morbidelli; 8 Miller; 9 A Espargaro; 10 Luthi; 11 Bautista; 12 Redding; 13 Abraham; 14 Simeon.
Rabat's had to back out after a major moment, so it's Pol Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci going through to Q2.
Stopwatch
Espargaro looks safe on his 2m05.169s. Petrucci's provisionally through too, but Rabat is still pushing.
Checkered flag
The two KTMs get their laps in just before the chequered flag - and Pol Espargaro goes top!
Stopwatch
Well, they're all properly speeding up now - and Danilo Petrucci in particular. 2m05.245s takes the Italian top by six tenths.
Crash
Two minutes left on the clock, as Alvaro Bautista only just misses the Aprilia of Scott Redding under braking.
Replay show a rapid crash for Abraham at the fast Turn 10 left-hander. He's back in the pits right now but looks to be holding his wrist.
Stopwatch
Only a quarter of a second separating the top seven. Syahrin's current benchmark is a 2m05.889s, which is over a second slower than the best lap of the weekend thus far.
By: Matt Beer
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