Austin MotoGP qualifying
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Running order at just past halfway: 1 Syahrin; 2 P Espargaro; 3 Petrucci; 4 Smith; 5 A Espargaro; 6 Rabat; 7 Nakagami; 8 Luthi; 9 Bautista; 10 Morbidelli; 11 Abraham; 12 Miller; 13 Simeon; 14 Redding.
Crash
Karel Abraham has crashed at Turn 10.
That was a capital-D decent first lap from Syahrin, it seems, because it's still keeping him top. Pol Espargaro is now second, 0.012s off, while his KTM teammate Bradley Smith is only 0.035s off the pace.
The first set of flying laps is in the books, and it's Tech 3 Yamaha's Hafizh Syahrin who leads! Petrucci is 0.021s off.
Petrucci will be first to start lapping in anger. His Ducati GP18 is equipped with the aero fairing, as are the works bikes of Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso.
None of the three riders have been particularly enamored with the current specification of the fairing in 2018, but it seems they have no choice but to use it on the bumpy, difficult Austin circuit.
None of the three riders have been particularly enamored with the current specification of the fairing in 2018, but it seems they have no choice but to use it on the bumpy, difficult Austin circuit.
Green flag
The 15-minute Q1 session is now underway.
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Q1 line-up: Petrucci, Simeon, Luthi, Abraham, Bautista, Morbidelli, Nakagami, Smith, A Espargaro, Miller, P Espargaro, Redding, Rabat, Syahrin.
Onto Q1, where 14 riders will duke it out for two spots in the pole shoot-out. All the big-name factory riders punched their tickets in FP3, so there's no obvious favourite to advance.
The Pramac duo, Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci, would normally be expected to join Q2, but it's not been a fantastic weekend for Ducati - so they might have some trouble.
The Pramac duo, Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci, would normally be expected to join Q2, but it's not been a fantastic weekend for Ducati - so they might have some trouble.
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FP4 results:
1 Marquez
2 Vinales
3 Rossi
4 Iannone
5 Crutchlow
6 Dovizioso
7 Miller
8 Rins
9 Zarco
10 Petrucci
...16 Pedrosa
...19 Lorenzo
1 Marquez
2 Vinales
3 Rossi
4 Iannone
5 Crutchlow
6 Dovizioso
7 Miller
8 Rins
9 Zarco
10 Petrucci
...16 Pedrosa
...19 Lorenzo
Checkered flag
FP4 is a wrap, Marquez ends up quickest by 0.052s from Vinales. They both dipped below 2m05s on multiple occasions - nobody else managed to even once.
It's been a fascinating FP4 session here. Marquez leads very predictably, but - just as he predicted earlier this weekend - Maverick Vinales is not that far back at all. ![Marquez wary of Vinales threat in Austin]()
Crash
Jack Miller has just had a crash at the Turn 19 left-hander with minutes left on the clock in FP4. Won't help his confidence for qualifying.
Points leader Cal Crutchlow has been in the top five in all sessions so far, and should fancy his chances of keeping first place in the standings heading out of COTA.
Twitter
The other big news from this weekend is that riders are unhappy with the COTA track surface. Very unhappy. Very, very unhappy.
It's been described as, in no particular order, “unacceptable”, “not safe”, a “disaster” and “so dirty and so bumpy you can't imagine”:
It's been described as, in no particular order, “unacceptable”, “not safe”, a “disaster” and “so dirty and so bumpy you can't imagine”:
The Rossi clash has had no post-Argentina sporting repercussions for Marquez, but it looks to have had pretty major consequences for MotoGP as a whole – with the organisers informing riders that penalties are about to get more severe: ![MotoGP to impose tougher penalties after clashes]()
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Marc Marquez, now once more Public Enemy No. 1 after helping Valentino Rossi to the ground two weeks ago, has won the previous five GPs of the Americas - and all of them from pole, meaning he's very much the favourite heading into qualifying today.
His pole margins at COTA (0.254s, 0.289s, 0.339s, 0.069s, 0.130s) suggest he is, at least theoretically, beatable over one lap, and the fact the best laptime of the weekend thus far actually belongs to Andrea Iannone supports that theory.
But it's admittedly a long shot, especially given the difficult track surface and intermittent rain on Saturday - all of which is all very much Marquez territory.
His pole margins at COTA (0.254s, 0.289s, 0.339s, 0.069s, 0.130s) suggest he is, at least theoretically, beatable over one lap, and the fact the best laptime of the weekend thus far actually belongs to Andrea Iannone supports that theory.
But it's admittedly a long shot, especially given the difficult track surface and intermittent rain on Saturday - all of which is all very much Marquez territory.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of qualifying for the sixth edition of MotoGP's Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
By: Matt Beer
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