Miller ready to make mark in Austin GP
AUSTRALIA’S Jack Miller has set himself as one of the men to beat at the Grand Prix of the Americas after he was only narrowly edged out for the fastest practice session times by Marc Marquez on as world championship leader Fabio Quartararo condemned the Austin track as “dangerous”.
On a track where Marquez always dominated, the Spanish Honda rider made the most of dry conditions in the afternoon to record a time of 2min 4.164sec, just 0.015sec quicker than Australian Miller.
Six-time MotoGP world champion Marquez posted his time close to the finish of the
session.
“Cheeky fastest lap with 20 seconds of FP2 left,” tweeted the Honda team. His lap was more than 1.5sec slower than the track record he set in 2014 but the time survived a late assault from Miller.
Marquez has taken pole position in the previous seven races at the Circuit of the Americas, which joined the
MotoGP program in 2013.
The Spaniard won the first six but fell off while leading in 2019. The race was cancelled last season when he was recuperating after smashing his right arm in crash.
He returned this season and, while he is clearly not 100 per cent, he has been much stronger at the few counterclockwise circuits, like Austin, which put less pressure on his right arm.
Quartararo was third at 2:04.366, but was unhappy with bumps that have appeared on the track
“It looks like a motocross training ground,” Quartararo said. “It’s barely acceptable to race on...and dangerous.”