Alvaro Bautista looks to raceday fightback at COTA

In five editions of the Grand Prix of the Americas, only one man has been on pole position. Marc Márquez took his fifth consecutive pole at the Circuit of the Americas in the final moment of the qualifying session, under the chequered flag and snatching the spot from Maverick Viñales.

The two were the only riders capable of going round in under 2:03, and will be accompanied on the front row by Valentino Rossi -9 tenths back. Dani Pedrosa, Johann Zarco and Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo will occupy the second row of the grid, for a 21-lap race that will start at 2pm local time.

The Pull&Bear Aspar team will have to attempt a fightback at the Grand Prix Of The Americas, in order to continue adding points to their tally. Karel Abraham and Álvaro Bautista will start from the sixth and seventh rows of the grid, respectively, meaning they will need to overtake other riders to enter into the points. Bautista’s time of 2:06.295 put him nineteenth on the grid.

19th Álvaro Bautista 2:06.295 (6 laps):
“Yesterday I explained that the feeling I had was better than the result. Today, and I don’t know if it was because of the track conditions or something else, but the morning didn’t go well. We crashed without really knowing the reason for it. On the first lap, I noticed that I had lower grip than yesterday. I tried to heat the tyres up, and at Turn 2 I lost the front. If the conditions were right, then you’d go in there at more or less the same speed, but the grip was much lower. In the afternoon, I didn’t feel comfortable. We suffered a bit, and we have been looking at the data. In the warmup tomorrow we will look for something that will help me achieve more tyre contact with the track. I find it hard to warm the tyres up and they feel cold, but I can’t heat them up because I can’t push -because I can’t get them in contact with the track enough. It’s a vicious circle. We hope the temperature will help us tomorrow too. It has been one of my most difficult days on the Ducati.”