2018 Americas GP motorcycle racing: Spanish triple pole in Austin

Austin is Marc Márquez territory, so much so that sometimes we wonder whether the Spanish rider might have Texan roots. In the five editions this Grand Prix has been run, Honda has taken pole position and victory, and in this 2018 edition he was already halfway to repeating that feat after being the fastest in qualifying. However, Márquez will not start first on the grid and will line up three places further back, after race direction decided to penalise the Spanish rider.

It all stems from a new controversy, this time not with Rossi but with the other Yamaha rider, Maverick Viñales. Márquez got in the way of Maverick when the latter was setting fast laps, and that leaves the Spaniard without pole and Viñales ends up benefiting from the incident, since he had set the second-best time. Alongside the Yamaha rider on the front row will be Iannone and Zarco, and on the second row Márquez, right beside Vale Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

Shortly afterwards, another Márquez would be the fastest on track, when the Moto2 riders were running on the Circuit of the Americas asphalt. Alex, Marc’s younger brother, took his first pole of the season and the first since last year’s Catalan GP. The Spaniard improved on the times set by the Briton Sam Lowes and the Italian Mattia Pasini, the other riders who will start from the front row, thus confirming the Spanish triple pole at this 2018 Americas GP.

And before the Márquez brothers were the best in their respective categories, Jorge Martín took pole position in the Moto3 category. Martín, last year’s pole man, had struggled to be the best in the two previous Grands Prix, but in Austin he finally secured his first pole position of the year. A big pole, being half a second faster than his main rival, Aron Canet, and more than seven tenths quicker than the Briton McPhee, who set the third-best time of the session.