2025 Americas MotoGP: Marc Marquez dominates wet-to-dry Practice at COTA
Championship leader fastest in second practice at Americas MotoGP
Factory Ducati MotoGP rider Marc Marquez dominated a wet-to-dry Practice at the 2025 Americas Grand Prix, as Pecco Bagnaia was 1.5s adrift in 10th.
After the wet conditions of FP1, the rain had stopped in time for the hour-long Practice and a dry line was appearing as pitlane opened for the second session of the day.
While the early laps were completed on wet tyres, slicks were called for after just 20 minutes of running, with Marc Marquez using them to full effect to dominate the session.
The championship leader was 0.736s clear of the field with a 2m02.929s, with the VR46 Ducati duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli his nearest challenger.
Marquez’s team-mate Pecco Bagnaia spent the final moments of Practice hovering around the danger zone as he battled for a place directly in Q2 qualifying.
As the chequered flag came out, Bagnaia was pushed back to 10th, but held onto a Q2 place by 0.120s over Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
After 10 minutes of running in Practice, Marc Marquez set the pace at 2m13.456s on wet tyres, though the likes of Alex Marquez, Morbidelli and Joan Mir would demote him over the following moments.
Honda’s Luca Marini and Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller were the first riders out on slicks in the session with 40 minutes remaining.
Miller went top immediately on his first lap with a 2m12.613s, which led to the rest of the field ditching their wet tyres.
With 25 minutes remaining, Marc Marquez returned to the top of the order with a 2m08.327s on his first slick tyre lap.
He would trade top spot with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Miller, but would ultimately see out the session fastest of all with a 2m02.929s.
This put Marc Marquez 0.736s clear of the field, with Di Giannantonio making a late leap to second.
Team-mate Morbidelli had pitted with just over three minutes to go, which threw his Q2 hopes into doubt.
But a final lap of 2m03.766s saw him jump up to third ahead of Gresini duo Alex Marquez and rookie team-mate Fermin Aldeguer.
Miller was sixth and the only Yamaha through to Q2 so far, with Pedro Acosta the leading KTM in seventh ahead of Tech3’s Maverick Vinales.
Joan Mir was ninth on the factory Honda, with Bagnaia narrowly holding onto a Q2 place on the sister factory team Ducati.
The late improvements for the VR46 pair knocked Quartararo out of the Q2 places, with the Yamaha rider facing Q1 alongside the likes of Brad Binder (KTM), Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse).
Marini failed to do much with his early slick tyre switch and was only 15th at the chequered flag, while 2023 COTA winner Alex Rins was a distant 17th.
A late crash for LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco ended his Q2 hopes and left him 20th in the session.
