Ducati Lenovo's Pecco Bagnaia continued his incredible recent form by denying Marc Marquez his record-breaking eighth COTA pole on Saturday.
While Jack Miller was tipped for the battle, after his FP3 pace, it was teammate Bagnaia who took the glory for a third GP in a row. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo kept his title-leading dominance with his 14th front row start of the season while Marquez completed the celebrations, in third.
Aleix Espargaro began qualifying as he finished FP4, on the deck after his fourth crash of the weekend, at turn 12. Joan Mir set the pace as the initial laps registered, 2’03.902 the reference for the first 15-minute session.
The Suzuki was followed by Franky Morbidelli and Alex Marquez, the trio immediately looking to improve as Miguel Oliveira crashed out at turn 11 before setting a fast time.
Valentino Rossi found fourth before his younger brother demoted him one position at the halfway stage, Luca Marini circulating half a second over the current best.
Mir returned to the track for his second run on a new soft rear tyre, the reigning champion bettering his previous two headliners with a 2’03.540. Enea Bastianini was the next to spike, finding third just one-hundredth down on Morbidelli before the Monster Yamaha improved again. He was demoted as the flag came out, however, as Marini threw down the gauntlet with a blistering 2’03.410 as his brother crashed out at the rapid sixth corner.
A late push saw Andrea Dovizioso improve but it wasn’t enough top challenge for promotion, the second Petronas taking fourth at the flag and openly frustrated.
Q2 found Alex Rins first out of the blocks, but it was Jorge Martin who set the pace as the first laps came in. His 2’03.2 heading Marc Marquez by a third of a second, while his Pramac teammate Johann Zarco followed for third.
The Frenchman looked to heading to the top with his next effort before falling short in the final sector, again finding third as Marquez and Martin swapped positions at the top. Takaaki Nakagami demoting Zarco with his third lap as Quartararo sat fifth with five minutes to go.
The final runs fired up with three minutes left on the clock, Quartararo and Bagnaia looking to threaten from fifth and sixth as they hunted for pole. The Ducati rider claimed the spoils thanks to a 2’02.781 with the Frenchman second, three-tenths behind but the Yamaha man wasn’t done, his final flourish falling improving across the board before falling short in the last sector.
Marquez clung on to the front row but forfeited his clean sweep of pole positions at the Texas track. Miller openly disappointed as his expected prowess was reduced to a 10th place start.
The Pramac pair secured the second row, Nakagami in between, with Rins and Mir heading row three from the impressive Marini. Brad Binder and Pol Espargaro completed the top 12.
