Marc Marquez continued to assert his dominance over the MotoGP field by taking a third consecutive pole position of 2025 at the Circuit of the Americas.
Marquez faced multiple challengers throughout qualifying but ultimately prevailed to claim pole by a tenth over VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Raul Fernandez crashed in the opening minutes of the first qualifying session at Turn 10, with the session red-flagged moments later due to damage to the air fence.
Honda’s Luca Marini and Fabio Quartararo had the advantage when the session recommenced and were the two riders to advance into Q2.
Marquez set the time to beat as the riders headed out for their first laps in the second part of qualifying with a 2:01.522.
The Spanish rider’s time was challenged towards the end of the session, firstly by his brother Alex Marquez and then by Franco Morbidelli.
Joan Mir crashed in the closing stages of the session, which brought out the yellow flag, but it didn’t affect any of the riders contending for pole.
The eight-time world champion was unfazed by the pressure and set a new personal-best lap of 2:01.088 to reclaim pole position.
Di Giannantonio initially had his time taken away due to the yellow flags from Mir’s crash, but his lap was reinstated as he took second place.
The younger Marquez brother completed the first row of the grid in third place, three tenths off the best time.
Pedro Acosta had a strong showing for KTM in fourth ahead of Franco Morbidelli for VR46 Ducati.
Francesco Bagnaia made a mistake on his penultimate lap of the session and was only able to finish in sixth.
Both factory Honda riders continued their strong showings in Austin, with Marini leading Joan Mir in seventh and eighth respectively.
Jack Miller proved his pace as the top Yamaha as he qualified ninth, while Maverick Vinales heads the fourth row of the grid in 10th.
Quartararo qualified 11th after progressing through to Q2, while Fermin Aldeguer was 12th and rounded out the standings in the second part of qualifying.
Marco Bezzecchi narrowly missed out on advancing through and finished the session in 13th.
Two-time Austin race winner Alex Rins was 14th ahead of Johann Zarco and Brad Binder, who were split by one-thousandth of a second.
Enea Bastianini’s struggles aboard the Tech3 KTM continued as he could only manage 17th in qualifying.
The Trackhouse pair took 18th and 19th at the team’s home race, with Ai Ogura outqualifying Raul Fernandez, who rejoined the session after his crash.
Augusto Fernandez took 20th for Pramac Yamaha ahead of rookie Somkiat Chantra in 21st, while Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori completed the standings in 22nd.
