Johann Zarco led the way at the end of the opening day of running for the Americas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas ahead of Jack Miller.
Times reduced significantly from FP1 to FP2, Alex Rins’ opening session benchmark of 2:04.0s paling in significance to Zarco’s FP2 effort of 2:02.542, the Pramac racer heading factory Ducati man Miller by a commanding 0.247s heading into Saturday.
Fabio Quartararo ended up third quickest overall for Yamaha, with Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini and Rins – who was forced to pull over with a mechanical failure mid-way through FP1 – completing the top five.
The returning Marc Marquez was an impressive sixth as he took to the controls of his Honda RC213-V for the first time in three weeks after recovering from a short bout of diplopia, the six-time premier class champion lapping just under half-a-second away from Zarco’s benchmark.
Marverick Vinales continued to show strong speed for Aprilia having enjoyed a much more competitive showing in last weekend’s Argentinean GP, the Spaniard managing the second best time in FP1 before ending the day seventh overall thanks to his best FP2 gambit.
The other Suzuki of Joan Mir was eighth ahead of Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, while Jorge Martin rounded off the top ten heading into Saturday on the sister Pramac Ducati.
Argentina GP victor and current series leader Aleix Espargaro was 11th on his RS-GP Aprilia machine, while Brad Binder ended the day as the quickest of KTM’s charge in 13th, 0.996s down on Zarco.
Andrea Dovizioso was 15th for RNF Racing Yamaha, with the fastest rookie accolade going the way of Gresini’s Fabio Di Gianantonio, the Italian lapping just 0.096s faster than countryman and fellow newcomer Marco Bezzecchi’s VR46-run Desmosedici.
Miguel Oliveira ended a tough day as the 24th and last runner in the times, the Indonesian GP winner struggling to get up to speed around the complex COTA venue with his RC16.
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