A last-ditch lap by the soft-tyred Andrea Iannone saw undisputed Austin MotoGP king Marc Marquez deposed from the top of Friday’s timesheet as the chequered flag was waved.
But the Repsol Honda man, who was only 0.056s slower than the Suzuki man, spent the whole session on the same hard Michelin rear and was able to put in a 2’04.655 on a tyre that had already done eight laps at an ominous pace with two more laps in the 2’04 bracket despite losing the front at turn 11, going down on some bumps.
By comparison, Maverick Vinales spent his session on a medium/medium setup and his fastest lap, set on his last, was two-tenths down on his fellow Spaniard on a tyre that was threelaps old.
Vinales’ time was enough to put team-mate Valentino Rossi into fourth place. The Doctor spent most on the medium rear Michelin but he ended with a 2’05.926 after switching to the soft.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, who is the series points leader, was on the hard rear like Marquez for most of the session but changed to a soft late on to secure a potential qualifying two spot as there are huge storms forecast for Austin tomorrow.
The LCR Honda man was less than half a second off Marquez and three-tenths quicker than the soft-tyred Alex Rins on the second Suzuki. Jorge Lorenzo found a chunk of time with the soft rear, setting the second fastest time with six minutes left but he slipped back to seventh place.
It looked like disaster for Andrea Dovizioso as he was in 16th until the death of the session but bounced back with a soft rear to take eighth, one ahead of Aleix Espargaro.
Dani Pedrosa put in an heroic ride to tenth and probably the last automatic qualifying spot. The Repsol Honda man underwent surgery on his broken wrist just 12 days ago and managed a 1’05.761 despite having to rest his wrist several times on circuit and once been seen on screens moving like he is in absolute agony.
Unfortunately for the little Spaniard, he will have to negotiate the business end of 400 corners come race day and that could be more than his wrist can manage.
Danilo Petrucci and Tito Rabat, who crashed with 26 minutes left but got back out on his second Avintia Ducati, just missed out on a top ten while Johann Zarco was the shock of the session, languishing in 13th place and looking distinctly dis-chuffed in his garage.
Jack Miller and Scott Redding completed the top 15.
