Marc Marquez second-fastest at a dusty Austin track, Dani Pedrosa a brave 10th

Marc Marquez enjoyed a strong start at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, showing top form right from the morning session and ending the day second-fastest despite an insubstantial tip-off at Turn 11 with 20 minutes to go in FP2.

After ending the morning’s FP1 session in 21st place, the recovering Dani Pedrosa bravely brought his RC213V to 10th place in the FP2 session.

With the weather forecast calling for possible rain on Saturday, Marc’s and Dani’s performances so far could prove enough to secure them top-10 overall qualifying positions, which would advance them directly to QP2.

Marc Marquez
“I’m quite happy with how things are going because I felt strong from the beginning, and we worked for the race. Most importantly, I did my lap time with a hard rear tyre. They also say it may rain tomorrow, so it’s positive to be up in second place. Our pace is already good, but there are a few things we want to improve because I don’t yet feel 100%. This afternoon I had a small crash when I tried another setup, so we need to keep working, also because there are some riders looking strong, in particular Vinales. Today we were able to try several tyres but we must also understand more on that side. Anyway, let’s wait and see; there’s so much that remains between now and Sunday.”

Dani Pedrosa
“I’m happy with this afternoon’s result, as we finally managed to get a bit better position than I was expecting, and this is very positive. That said, both of today’s sessions were tough, especially FP2, because this afternoon I gave maximum effort in order to understand if there’s any reason to race on Sunday. This morning I felt quite a lot of pain, but I just tried to feel what I could do on the bike. My pace wasn’t so good, so I tried to put myself in a better position this afternoon, and I’m very pleased with the outcome. Now we have to try and control the swelling ahead of tomorrow’s action. This is one of our biggest targets now, as the swelling has increased due to the efforts. We’ll try our best to handle a bit better pace tomorrow so that we may approach the race with the aim of getting some points.”