Marc Marquez extended his record of most Pole Positions in Grand Prix history across all classes at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday when he secured the 67th pole in career (his 39th in the MotoGP class, his second in a row this season and his fifth in a row at Austin.
The reigning champion worked hard with his Repsol Honda team on race pace on used tyres and despite suffering two crashes (without consequences) in FP3, he was able to regain good confidence on his RC213V and keep a fast pace.
“This pole makes me feel really good because I honestly didn't expect it, or actually I thought it would be difficult,” he said. “In fact, even considering that this circuit suits my riding style, I've been struggling a bit this weekend. We knew that our opponents were very strong on new tyres and we worked a lot on race distance, and I felt better on race pace than on qualifying pace. "
"But anyway, this is a track I love, so I told myself, ‘Let's try!' and on my last lap I pushed to my maximum, doing my best, and we got another pole here in Austin which is very good. I'm happy with the team; we changed many things on the bike over the weekend and step-by-step we regained some confidence, so this afternoon we just focused on keeping a good pace and it worked well."
"We did a good job in FP4. I feel quite good on used tyres so we'll see what we can do tomorrow.”
