Marc Marquez led Johann Zarco by a comfortable four-tenth advantage in a weather-affected third MotoGP free practice in Texas.
Circuit of the Americas specialist Marquez was quick to hit the front of the third practice timesheets with a 2:04.938s in the opening minutes, improving on his next lap to a 2:04.676s to go half a second clear of the rest.
Improvements on overall laptime were few and far between, though Tech3's Johann Zarco was able to lift himself from 13th to 10th with a 2:05.223s in the opening stages.
The French rider found himself outside of the Qualifying 2 places soon after, however, as the injured Dani Pedrosa heroically moved up to eighth with a 2:05.504s.
Zarco didn't remain outside of the top 10 for long, as he fired in a 2:05.327s to go sixth, improving a place in the closing stages with a 2:05.025s to secure direct passage into the second part of qualifying later this afternoon.
With 20 minutes to go, Marquez put Suzuki's Andrea Iannone's 2:04.599s from Friday under threat, but just missed out with a 2:04.608s. The arrival of ligh rain 10 minutes later stopped him having any more chances at usurping the Italian.
Remaining top of the FP3 times, Marquez headed Zarco and Iannone, with Honda stablemate Cal Crutchlow fourth in the session and safely into Q2 on his LCR RC213V.
Andrea Dovizioso spent FP3 running Ducati's aerodynamic fairing in a bid to improve the Desmosedici's performance over the circuit's vicious bumps.
The Italian was able to improve on his Friday best with a 2:05.470s, which put him fifth in the session and eighth overall, with Pedrosa ending the morning sixth on the individual timesheets.
Maverick Vinales headed Alex Rins, Valentino Rossi and Scott Redding – who suffered a light tumble with 20 minutes remaining – to complete the top 10 in FP3, though the latter of that quartet will have to go through Q1.
Jorge Lorenzo on the second factory Ducati, who was 11th on the third session, secured the final Q2 spot in ninth overall by virtue of his 2:05.487s from Friday's running.
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