Bridgestone: Marquez smashes his own lap record to take pole at the GP of the Americas

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez rode a sensational final lap in MotoGP™ Qualifying Practice 2 to smash his own Circuit of the Americas lap record as he vies for a third consecutive victory at the Texas circuit.

After having to swap motorcycles due to a technical issue, Marquez produced an amazing one-lap display to set a time of 2’02.135, bettering his own COTA lap record by 0.638 seconds to maintain his perfect pole record at the circuit.

Dovizioso continued his strong form

Qualifying in second place was Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso who continued his strong form with a time of 2'02.474, while Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo completes the front row having qualified third with a time of 2'02.540. The general pace of qualifying at this year’s Grand Prix of the Americas was tremendous, with the top six riders in QP2 lapping under the old outright lap record.

Both Marquez and Lorenzo used the combination of the medium compound front and rear slicks to set their best qualifying times, while Dovizioso used the soft compound rear slick in conjunction with the medium compound front for his hot lap.

Track conditions and tyres

Today was overcast but there was no sign of the rain that plagued yesterday’s sessions, with dry tarmac throughout the day. The cloud cover kept temperatures to a moderate level, with the peak track temperature of 28°C recorded at the end of QP2 the same as yesterday’s high. The mild conditions meant that the hard compound rear slick remained unused by the factory Honda and Yamaha riders, although the hard compound front slick was used by some riders in FP4 and qualifying.

Overall, the medium compound front and rear slicks proved to the most popular choice in FP3 and FP4 given the weather and track conditions, and in the case of a dry race are likely to be used by most of the twenty-five riders grid. For qualifying, almost every rider used the softest rear slick available, the medium compound for the factory Honda and Yamaha riders, and soft compound for the rest of the field.

The next MotoGP session is the twenty-minute Warm Up session at 0940 local time (GMT -6) tomorrow before the twenty-one lap race commences at 1400.

Shinji Aoki - Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department: “I am happy that all of today’s sessions were dry, as it was important for the riders to evaluate some different tyre combinations as this circuit requires good bike setup to ensure efficient use of the tyres.

The track temperatures today were around fifteen degrees cooler compared to FP4 and qualifying last year, so although tyre performance was strong and consistent, the harder compound options weren’t very popular as optimum warm-up performance and heat retention is important in cooler conditions.

The performance of our latest tyres in conjunction with the 2015 MotoGP machinery was evident in qualifying with the top six riders lapping under the existing lap record, and I hope to see the race lap record also beaten tomorrow if the race is dry.”

Americas MotoGP™ QP 2 times

Bridgestone Motorsport