The third round of the 2024 FIM Grand Prix World Championship takes place this week, from April 12th to 24th, at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in the United States.
Gresini MotoGP Team fields a Spanish brother duo for the season: Marc Marquez, riding the #93 bike, and Alex Marquez, on the #73.
On Friday, MotoGP riders had their first free practice (FP1) and a practice race (PR). In FP1, the Marquez brothers set the eighth and twentieth fastest lap times respectively.
In PR, Marc Marquez clocked the third-fastest lap time of 2 minutes 01.806 seconds on his final lap out of 18, improving by over 2 seconds from his FP1 best of 2 minutes 04.003 seconds, securing him a direct entry into the weekend’s Q2 session. Alex Marquez had a crash at Turn 15 and finished with a thirteenth-place time of 2 minutes 02.493 seconds, just about 0.15 seconds away from the top ten and a direct Q2 spot.
Reflecting on the day’s action, Marc Marquez said, “The race is going as expected, but maybe not as easy as it looks. Riding a new bike [the Desmosedici GP23, his first season with it] is never straightforward, but since the second round, my crew chief and I have been in sync, and we found a new, comfortable setup. That’s where my weekend starts.”
“I know the areas where I’ll be affected, and step by step, we’re getting closer to those three or four riders who are faster. Tomorrow, we’ll have a better understanding of our position, and the target is to be in the front two rows – that’s where we’ll truly see what we can achieve this weekend.”
Alex Marquez shared, “It wasn’t an easy day, but there was progress in the afternoon, though not enough. I made a mistake in Turn 1, apart from the crash, during the crucial lap. Still, we’re very close to the top ten and Q2. The bike feels a bit difficult to turn, and there’s some instability under braking… These are details we need to work on.”