Jorge Martin established himself as the rider to beat at the end of the opening day's action for the Grand Prix of The Americas at COTA, Round 3 of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship.

The Spaniard, who arrives in the United States with an 18 point advantage at the head of the overall standings following his Portuguese MotoGP victory, began the day trailing Maverick Vinales after FP1.

However, a benchmark-setting effort of 2m 01.397secs would prove enough to put almost a tenth between himself and the Aprilia Racing rider come the end of the Q2 top ten deciding Friday afternoon session.

On a strong day for Ducati, seven of its eight entries booked their place into Q2 safely, among them Marc Márquez, who improved to third fastest on his year-old Gresini Racing GP23, albeit four tenths adrift of Pramac's Martin.

Despite lingering outside the top ten until the latter stages, Pecco Bagnaia made late gains to go safe for Q2 in fourth, where he will be joined by Ducati Lenovo team-mate Enea Bastianini [8th]. Franco Morbidelli also ensured he will make a Q2 appearance with the seventh best time, as did Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing duo Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi in ninth and tenth.

Sandwiched between the Ducati Armada were Pedro Acosta, who consolidated another impressive Friday to emerge as the only KTM rider to make Q2 directly on the GasGas-branded RC16, and Aleix Espargaro, who joined Aprilia Racing team-mate Vinales in progressing.

Those who will need to go again in Q1 include Trackhouse Racing Aprilia duo Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, who ended Friday in 11th and 12th for the US-based outfit, while KTM Factory Racing team-mates Brad Binder and Jack Miller were also conspicuous by their absence in the top ten in 14th and 16th.

Another disappointing session for Yamaha would see Fabio Quartararo down in 17th as its top representative, while Honda - winners in 2023 with Alex Rins on the LCR machine - fared even worse as they occupied the lattermost four spots on the timesheets.

🇺🇸 ⏱️ 2024 Grand Prix of The Americas MotoGP, COTA | Free Practice 1 Results

Friday | Conditions - Dry, Sunny