Maverick Vinales doesn't seem to want to give up the first position at the weekend of the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas. After having conquered pole position and the Sprint, the Aprilia rider had everything in line also in the Warm-Up, held under a cloudy and threatening sky on the Austin circuit.
A Warm-Up that highlighted how unclear the choice to make regarding the rear tire is at the moment in view of the long race. If yesterday everyone took part in the Sprint on the soft, this morning there were many who instead decided to give the medium a chance, which seemed the most logical option with the degradation seen yesterday. However, the lower temperatures for now compared to yesterday could represent an interesting discriminant
Among those who achieved the average was Vinales, who stopped the clock with a time of 2'02″341 with his Aprilia. But also Marc Marquez, who follows him in second place with the Gresini Racing Ducati, 176 thousandths behind. The same goes for Raul Fernandez, third but by a good 454 thousandths on the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia.
The first on the soft tires was world leader Jorge Martin, fourth at 557 thousandths on his Prima Pramac Racing Ducati. Also on the same compound is Alex Marquez, who follows him and must try to straighten out a weekend that hasn't been particularly exciting so far with his Gresini Racing Ducati.
Continuing to scroll through the ranking, we find a trio of KTMs, who instead all worked with the average. Needless to say, the captain is once again rookie Pedro Acosta, who is followed by the two official RC16s of Brad Binder and Jack Miller. This small group, however, is more than seven tenths away from the top.
The work done by the two official Ducati riders was particularly particular, with Pecco Bagnaia fitting the soft rear tire that he had complained about at the end of the Sprint to evaluate the changes made to his Desmosedici GP. The pace, however, did not seem too different, because he finished 15th, credited with a time of 2'03″499. It went better, but not too much, for Enea Bastianini who instead placed 11th with the average.
The Japanese bikes are still in great difficulty, occupying six of the last seven positions, with only Augusto Fernandez acting as an intruder among them with the GasGas Tech3. Once again the best was Alex Rins, who confirmed his feeling with the Texan track, albeit paying a gap of 1″1. At the rear of the group there are the two official Hondas of Joan Mir and Luca Marini, who they also find themselves behind the RC213Vs of Team LCR.
#MotoGP #Austin #Warmup #Vinales #reference #medium #tyre
