MotoGP: Vinales in pole dopo la penalità a Marquez

La sesta storica pole di Marc Marquez al Circuit of the Americas, e la prima della stagione, è stata cancellata e lo spagnolo partirà dalla quarta casella sulla griglia, dopo la penalità di tre posizioni data dai commissari FIM a fine qualifiche. Dopo la caduta alla curva 13 nel suo secondo giro lanciato, Marquez è dovuto tornare di corsa ai box per cambiare moto e difendere la seconda posione ma, tornato in pista, non si è accorto che dietro di lui arrivava Maverick Vinales lanciato nel suo giro e ha rallentato il pilota Yamaha, da qui la penalità.

Marc Marquez: “Basically, today was good for us, as we were the fastest in qualifying and, most importantly, were able to keep a good race pace in FP3 and FP4. Of course qualifying was a bit hectic. I crashed and had to take my second bike for the second run. I went out, and unfortunately I didn’t expect Maverick to arrive behind me because I was focused on Andrea (Iannone), who was waiting ahead and who I knew could be very fast. I apologized to Maverick but I didn’t realize he was behind me until I heard his engine. So tomorrow I’ll start from fourth. It will be important to choose the right tyre; we’ve worked a lot on used tyres and I was able to be consistent during the practices, but this track is quite physically demanding and tomorrow the temperature should be higher, so we’ll see. We’ll try and remain fully concentrated“.

Maverick Vinales: “For sure I‘m very satisfied. It‘s been a long time since I was on the first row. I think tomorrow we can do a great race. I felt really good with the tyres, especially the rear. I think that tomorrow we still have a little room to improve. Race by race I‘m finding my own bike, my own style, and I still have a margin to push more. I‘m quite happy and tomorrow we‘re going to try to be even faster. I‘m very much focused on tomorrow. We had great pace in FP4 and we have to keep pushing. I think fighting for the victory will be difficult, but not impossible. I feel good and I feel good on the bike, so let‘s see. I think between today and tomorrow we can make another step“.