Marc Marquez, winner of all three MotoGP races at Circuit of the Americas since it’s inaugural season in 2013, opened the track’s 2016 weekend with a sweep of Friday’s free practices.
The two-time champion bested reigning champ Jorge Lorenzo by a quarter second in Free Practice #1, then shaved almost a second off his time in Free Practice #2.
The competition was unable to keep up, with second overall Andrea Iannone trailing Repsol Honda’s Marquez by .7 seconds, despite improving his own FP1 time by three quarters of a second. The Ducati Corse rider undoubtedly aims to improve performance and ease tensions after losing control of his bike and taking out teammate Andrea Dovizioso in the final turn of last weekend’s grand Prix in Argentina. He was penalized for the incident.
Despite taking the top spot in both of Friday’s free practice segments, Marquez’s time of 2’04.034 is still nearly two seconds off the track record he set last year.
FP2 saw second-year GP rider Maverick Vinales pilot his Suzuki to the third spot overall, with a time of 2’04.895.
Octo Pramac’s Scott Redding overcame gastrointestinal illness and was the top satellite rider overall, placing 6th and 4th in the free practices, respectively. Redding also experienced serious flight delays from Argentina, arriving two days late after multiple flights and “a few bus rides of seven or eight hours.”
Possibly the biggest surprise of the day was Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera placing fourth in FP1, and his teammate Loris Baz capturing the seventh spot overall.
