Álvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham lay down the foundations for the weekend at Circuit of the Americas despite a late crash for the Czech rider that will see him undergo medical checks in the morning due to a hairline fracture of right ankle
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Marc Márquez is the king of the Circuit of the Americas, having won every MotoGP race ever to be held here, and he took his place on the throne this afternoon with a late lap of (2'04.061) to oust Johann Zarco and this year's current championship leader Maverick Viñales. Zarco finished second, just under three tenths behind the Spaniard, with FP1 pacesetter Viñales another tenth further back and just ahead of his team-mate Valentino Rossi.
Álvaro Bautista was the fastest of the two Pull&Bear Aspar riders, with his team-mate Karel Abraham's day ending slightly ahead of schedule after an unusual crash. Bautista completed 30 laps over the two sessions, finishing with the sixteenth fastest time. Despite setting his best time of the day this afternoon, the Spaniard was actually fifth fastest this morning, less than a second off Viñales. Abraham was taken to the medical centre for checks on his ankle after a collision with his team-mate and will require further assessment before action resumes tomorrow morning due to a hairline fracture of right ankle. Abraham finished the day in 21st position, after taking six tenths off his best time from this morning, despite missing the opportunity to make any late improvements on a soft tyre.
16th Álvaro Bautista 2:05.602 (30 laps):“It has been a strange day, the track was more bumpy than usual. This morning I was lacking a little grip with the medium rear so we switched to the soft and I was able to set a good time. In the afternoon the medium felt better and we were able to set a competitive pace – not like Viñales and Márquez but otherwise competitive and close to the others. I thought that we could improve more with the soft but it was very similar to the medium. I missed out on a good lap but we are not too bad in terms of our pace, as the position suggests. As far as the incident with my team-mate is concerned, I could see that he was riding slowly and I didn't want to pass him on the brakes into turn eleven, so I waited to pass him on the straight. I thought he was letting me through but then he came back onto the track and there wasn't enough room for both of us. We touched and he went down. Luckily I think he's okay.”
21st Karel Abraham 2:06.709 (24 laps): “It is disappointing because we just put soft tyres on to make a better lap time, I went out and took the first few corners carefully then started to push. I got to the hairpin before the back straight and braked a little too late, so I ran wide. When I turned and opened the throttle, unfortunately Alvaro was exiting the corner at the same time and I don't know if his bike moved or what but he hit me from the side. I didn't expect it, I had a big crash and the bike landed on me. Now I have pain in a couple of places. I need an x-ray on my ankle but I hope to be back on the bike again tomorrow. It is a shame because this track is really difficult and this morning I was not really happy with the bike but we made a big step for the afternoon. We had a couple of things to try that we're really important and we didn't get to set a good lap on the soft tyre. I am annoyed because if you make a mistake and crash you at least learn something. This one was completely useless.”