MotoGP: Bagnaia takes third straight pole in Texas qualifying

The 15th round of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship takes place this weekend, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for the Grand Prix of the Americas. Jack Miller had finished top of the combined free practice times.

Joan Mir had struggled throughout timed free practice, but in FP4, despite a blow-up early on, he seemed to find something. The Spaniard showed excellent pace and consistency in the pre-qualifying session, and carried that into Q1. 

Mir topped the session after the first run, ahead of Franco Morbidelli. An improvement on the first lap of his second run seemed to confirm Mir in Q2, but an impressive lap for Luca Marini sent him to the top. Andrea Dovizioso then put together a first half of the lap that looked like it could challenge Mir, but in the end the Italian lost out in the third and fourth sectors, and Mir managed to squeeze through to Q2 with Marini, who made the qualifying top 12 for the first time since the French Grand Prix in May.

Normal service appeared to resume in Q2, with Marc Marquez topping the times after the first runs. Marquez’ debut MotoGP season was the same year as Texas debuted on the MotoGP calendar, and in that time no rider other than Marquez has qualified on pole position.

Francesco Bagnaia had other plans, though, and obliterated Marquez’ time by almost half a second on his second run. It was a brilliant lap from Bagnaia to take his third pole in succession, becoming the first Italian to do so since Valentino Rossi in 2009, which was also the last year an Italian rider won the MotoGP title. 

Current championship leader Fabio Quartararo qualified second. Bagnaia has taken 21 points out of the Frenchman in the last two races, but the #20’s points lead is still more than 40 points. The V4 bikes, especially the Ducatis, have been strong this weekend, so it could be a difficult race to manage from Quartararo’s perspective, especially with the bumps, but if he can make a good start he might be able to distance himself from them before they can pounce.

Instead of pole position, Marquez will start from third place tomorrow, having been unable to improve with his second tyre due to traffic. The #93 has generally raced better than he has qualified in 2021, so expect him to feature strongly in the victory battle tomorrow. 

Jorge Martin qualified fourth for the second race in succession, although the Spaniard will be hoping for a different ending than in Misano. ALongside Martin on row two will be Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco, who seems refreshed and back to something approaching his best after his arm pump surgery. 

The two Suzukis can be found in their usual pre-race habitat of row three, with Alex Rins in seventh and Joan Mir eighth. They will have work to do from there, but their pace has looked strong all weekend, and Rins in particular has looked relatively calm over the bumps. 

The Suzuki riders are joined by Luca Marini on row three, who made the most of his only tyre in Q2 to make a career best qualifying of ninth place. 

Jack Miller set a searing pace in FP4, but from 10th place on the grid his race will be hard. If he can be efficient in moving himself forward, he will have a good opportunity to take his third win of the season, but the tight turn one makes everything more complicated when you start from the middle of the grid. Alongside Miller on row four will be Brad Binder and Pol Espargaro.

Franco Morbidelli is still suffering with his knee, and it is hard to imagine the surface at COTA aiding in that respect. The surface is quite awful by modern MotoGP standards, and it prompted a series of scathing reviews by riders up and down the pit lane on Friday night. The riders felt the circuit is in a dangerous condition, including Francesco Bagnaia who was not entirely opposed to a boycott or cancellation of the race on safety grounds, despite his current position in the championship. For Morbidelli, the additional impacts caused by the uneven surface can only be adding to his discomfort. 

Andrea Dovizioso ended up fourth in Q1, just behind the rider he has replaced in the Petronas SRT garage, Morbidelli. It was another impressive run from the veteran Italian, as he continues his adaptation to the YZR-M1. 

Completing the fifth row tomorrow will be Alex Marquez; while Enea Bastianini will start from 16th, alongside the KTM duo of Iker Lecuona and Miguel Oliveira on row six. 

The Aprilia has seemed to be the bike which has reacted the worst to the bumps, and Aleix Espargaro has been the victim of that. He ended free practice in 20th, and despite an apparent improvement in FP4, he was unable to do better than ninth in Q1, meaning he will start 19th tomorrow. Espargaro was one of the most vocal about his concerns with the track surface, and having crashed four times across Friday and Saturday in COTA, it is hard to imagine his opinion of the track has improved.

Joining Espargaro on the back row tomorrow will be Valentino Rossi and Danilo Petrucci, who have both struggled significantly this weekend and no doubt will be looking forward to the plane home.