Marc Marquez cemented their place at the top of the classification charts in the second MotoGP practice session in Texas.
The Spaniard was by far the most dominant all session, stringing together incredible laps in succession to claim the top spot.
No rider could touch his best lap time of 2.02.929s and his nearest challenger Fabio Di Giannantonio finished 0.736s off the pace.
The wet weather played a significant role in lap times in the first practice earlier in the day, but the track remained wet despite no rainfall during the second practice at the Circuit of the Americas.
Franco Morbidelli snatched the final spot to round off the top three, as both VR46 Ducati riders pipped the Gresini Ducati duo of Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer at the death.
As time passed during the session, lap times improved with each run as the damp patches slowly evaporated, with Pramac’s Jack Miller delivering an impressive performance at the session’s midpoint.
The Australian’s rapid pace resulted in a satisfactory result, finishing the session as the lead non-Ducati rider in sixth place.
Pedro Acosta booked himself a Q2 spot thanks to a superb seventh-place finish, followed closely by fellow countryman Maverick Vinales in eighth.
Joan Mir ensured one Honda rider secured Q2 qualification and even led the session at one point, but ended the session ahead of Francesco Bagnaia.
Bagnaia narrowly avoided having it all to do on Saturday, while his former title rival, Fabio Quartararo, had to endure the disappointment of missing out.
Brad Binder managed 12th place for KTM and Marco Bezzecchi’s 13th secured Aprilias best performance of the session.
Luca Marini finished in the middle of a Trackhouse sandwich, with rookie Ai Ogura continuing to impress.
Alex Rins and Enea Bastianini could only produce 17th and 18th place despite their teammate’s showings, with Augusto Fernandez half a second down.
A late crash at Turn 15 for Johann Zarco hampered his Q2 qualification hopes as he finished a distant 20th, but he will head into qualifying as one of the favourites to qualify in the top half of the table.
Somkiat Chantra followed his teammate to finish 21st, ahead of Aprilia test rider and Jorge Martin stand-in, Lorenzo Savadori.
READ MORE – Franco Morbidelli sets the pace in first COTA MotoGP practice
