MotoGP Austin, Free Practice 2: An extraordinary Marquez dominates the second session at COTA

Marc Marquez continues to amaze. After reaching the podium on his debut in Qatar (the youngest since MotoGP to do so), fighting to the finish line with Valentino Rossi, he "overwhelmed" the competition in the second free practice session of Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, second stage of the 2013 world championship (he was also the fastest in Free Practice 1).

In a circuit that is new to everyone (the COTA, Circuit Of The Americas) and where in the tests a month ago he had been the fastest, the Honda rookie actually "came out" by recording the best time in 2:05.031, a time that no one was able to beat it. With an aggressive and spectacular ride (elbow constantly on the ground) the Spaniard dominated the session, putting his compatriot and team-mate Dani Pedrosa behind him, who was more than half a second behind his young teammate at the end of the session. At the "Pedrosa" house, Marquez's performances are starting to scare and we are reminded of the words of Shuhei Nakamoto, who before the start of the season had spoken of the last "chance" for the rider from Sabadell.

Third time for another Honda, that of Stefan Bradl, rider of the LCR Team. The German rider, who had also been strong in the tests, lapped in 2:06.173, putting the two Factory Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi behind him, 1.606 and 1.837 respectively. A fairly heavy gap for the Tre Diapason manufacturer compared to Honda. This is also demonstrated by the sixth place of Cal Crutchlow, very close to the official Yamahas but behind the Hondas.

Behind the Team Tech 3 rider we find the first Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso, seventh and 2.205 off the top, a gap that is all in all acceptable if seen from a Yamaha "perspective". Among other things, the riders from the Borgo Panigale company had not tested here and "Dovi" had to do a good part of the session with the second bike due to a problem, most likely of an electrical nature, with bike #1.

Closing out the Top Ten are Alvaro Bautista with the Honda RC213V of Team Gresini, Nicky Hayden with the second Ducati of Team Interno and Ben Spies, with that of Team Pramac. Excellent as usual, the performance of Aleix Espargarò as the first CRT driver (he is eleventh) who precedes Hernandez, Smith, de Puniet and our Andrea Iannone, who finishes 4.829 from Marquez.

The Italians with the CRTs are Claudio Corti seventeenth with the FTR Kawasaki of Team NGM Mobile Forward Racing and Danilo Petrucci, nineteenth with the Ioda Suter BMW of the Came IodaRacing Project.

Photos: Alex Farinelli