MOTOGP

Texan circuit – Francesco Bagnaia secures pole position

Published

2 months ago

15/04/2023

Texan circuit - Francesco Bagnaia secures pole position

Get ready for a thrilling weekend of MotoGP action as reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia secures pole position for both the Sprint race and Grand Prix of America. Bagnaia, who aims to make a comeback after his error in Argentina, set the first-ever lap time of under 2 minutes and 2 seconds at the Texan circuit, outpacing Maverick Vinales by three tenths of a second.

Francesco Bagnaia, the reigning MotoGP champion, secured pole position for both the Sprint race and Grand Prix of America by clocking a lap time of under 2 minutes and 2 seconds, the first-ever in the history of the Texan circuit. Bagnaia aims to make a strong comeback after his error in Argentina, and he demonstrated his determination by outpacing Maverick Vinales by three tenths of a second.

After his initial lap, Bagnaia made a further improvement of almost 0.4 seconds on his next attempt, which was matched by Alex Marquez, who set an identical lap time. However, since Bagnaia had set his lap time earlier, he was still in the provisional pole position ahead of the final runs.

Before Bagnaia and Marquez recorded identical lap times, one of the top contenders for pole position, Jorge Martin, crashed at turn 11. Meanwhile, Jack Miller, who had already crashed three times during the Q2 session, added to his tally by tumbling at turn 1 just as the final runs were about to begin.

While Bagnaia and Marquez were competing for position on the track, with the latter keen on getting a tow, Suzuki rider Alex Rins focused on his own performance and managed to secure provisional pole position. Marquez failed to improve on his initial lap time and subsequently crashed, as did Jorge Martin for the second time during the session, both being Ducati riders.

With no competitors in close proximity, Bagnaia began his final lap and demonstrated his champion skills by setting the first-ever lap time of under 2 minutes and 2 seconds, securing pole position for the race. Meanwhile, Jack Miller’s weekend of misfortunes persisted as he suffered his fifth crash of the weekend after the checkered flag had been waved.

With a strong desire to set a good lap time, Bezzecchi approached turn 12 in a very loose manner, which was a corner where he had already crashed earlier in the weekend. Despite this, he managed to impressively hit the apex and went on to record the first flying lap of the session. Ducati rider Miguel Oliveira secured the second-fastest lap time, while Jonas Folger suffered an early fall in the final sector. On his second flying lap, Johann Zarco made it a Ducati 1-2, but he was still two-tenths of a second slower than Bezzecchi’s exceptional lap.

Joan Mir started the final flying laps from fifth position, but he quickly made progress and improved his lap time, ultimately replacing Johann Zarco to take the second spot on the grid. Raul Fernandez caused a yellow flag in sector one when he crashed at turn two, but Zarco managed to avoid the incident and went on to set the fastest time in sector one. He lost some time in sector three but made it up in sector four, eventually overtaking Bezzecchi’s lap time. As expected, Zarco and Bezzecchi, who were the pre-session favourites, finished inside the top two and progressed to Q1.

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