Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa started action this morning at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, setting the second- and seventh-fastest lap times, respectively, in the first Free Practice. Each of the Repsol Honda men spent the entire session on the same tyre combination: medium-front/medium-rear for Marc, soft-front/medium-rear for Dani.

Following are the first impressions from Marc and Dani. An additional release will follow at the end of the day, as usual.

Marc Marquez

2nd 2'05.500

“Today I felt quite good on the bike. We did two long runs with the two bikes set up differently, one with a setup similar to what we used in Argentina and another very different in order to understand which works better for this track this weekend. Overall, the feeling wasn’t so bad; I think we did a good job on used tyres and we found a good pace, though we have a margin for improvement, especially on the electronic side. The circuit has changed a lot from last year, as it’s now very bumpy. This afternoon we’ll try another tyre and we’ll work more on the bike’s setup, also looking to cope with the bumps better.”

Dani Pedrosa

7th 2'06.109

“As a first session, I think it went ‘okay.’ The track this year is incredibly bumpy. There are a few points where the bumps are huge, in the braking points for turn one, five, six and ten, when we move to the left, and on the back straight it’s like a whoop section in motocross! We need to work on the electronics but of course it’s not easy. Today we tried a new exhaust but we need to work on it more and to gather more data. We worked the whole session with the same tyres, and the feeling wasn’t bad, but we’ll try to improve further.”

MotoGP 2017
Practice Round 3   Americas

FREE PRACTICE 1 Results

Dry
Humidity
84%
Track Temp
27°C
Air Temp
23°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Vinales Maverick 25 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 2'04.923
2 Marquez Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 0.577
3 Dovizioso Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 0.681
4 Zarco Johann 5 FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 0.867
5 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati 0.910
6 Lorenzo Jorge 99 SPA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1.094
7 Pedrosa Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1.186
8 Rossi Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1.369
9 Espargaro Aleix 41 SPA Aprilia Racing Aprilia 1.488
10 Petrucci Danilo 9 ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 1.546
11 Crutchlow Cal 35 GBR LCR Honda Honda 1.561
12 Miller Jack 43 AUS Marc VDS Racing Team Honda 1.592
13 Redding Scott 45 GBR Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 1.723
14 Folger Jonas 94 GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1.769
15 Barbera Hector 8 SPA Esponsorama Racing Ducati 1.863
16 Iannone Andrea 29 ITA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1.901
17 Rabat Tito 53 SPA Marc VDS Racing Team Honda 1.971
18 Baz Loris 76 FRA Esponsorama Racing Ducati 2.204
19 Abraham Karel 17 CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati 2.377
20 Rins Alex 42 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 3.083
21 Espargaro Pol 44 SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Yamaha 3.205
22 Lowes Sam 22 GBR Aprilia Racing Aprilia 3.369
23 Smith Bradley 38 GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 3.817
Location Information

The Circuit Of The Americas is the first purpose-built Grand Prix facility in the U.S. near Austin, Texas, with a 5.513km track and a capacity for 120,000 fans. Construction of the impressive 1000-acre facility was completed late in 2012, with MotoGP lining up at the track for the first time… read more.

Length 5.513 kilometres / 3.426 miles
Width 15 metres
Left corners 11
Right corners 9
Longest straight 1.2 kilometres / 0.746 miles
Constructed 2012
Modified 2018 (track repairs to the surface to smooth down bumps)

9201 Circuit of the Americas Blvd Austin, TX 78617 - View in Google Maps

circuitoftheamericas.com

Records

Pole Position 2m 02.039s (162.6 km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2022)
Race Lap 2m 03.521s (160.6 km/h) Enea Bastianini (Ducati, 2022)
Race Time 41m 23.11s (159.8 km/h) Enea Bastianini (Ducati, 2022)
2022 Race Winner Enea Bastianini (Ducati)