Ten things to know before the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas.
1 – Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) qualified on pole position, setting the new lap record in Austin. This is his 15th pole in MotoGP™, the second with Aprilia after Valencia last year. He took his second consecutive Sprint win and is on course to make history on Sunday by taking a MotoGP™ win with three different brands, having done so with Suzuki and Yamaha.
2 – Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) also have this possibility.
3 – Rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) qualified in second place. It is his best qualifying in MotoGP™, he had never started on the front row. At 19 years and 324 days, he is the youngest to qualify on the front row in the MotoGP™ era. In the Sprint he finished fourth, never so well. He aims to become the youngest rider to win in the premier class, taking the record from Marc Marquez (20 years and 63 days, in Austin in 2013).
4 – Aprilia and KTM/GASGAS have never been on the podium in Austin. The drivers of the Noale brand have never gone higher than fourth place. The others never did better than eighth.
5 – Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™), the most successful rider in the top class in Austin with seven victories, qualified third, best Ducati. It is his best qualifying since second place in Mugello last year, never so good on the GP23 from Bologna. In the Sprint he equaled his best result by coming second. He will aim to win 903 days after the last time (Emilia-Romagna GP 2021). It would be his first success with Gresini and Ducati.
6 – The reigning world champion, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), qualified fourth. In 2024 he has never started from the front row. He has not spent three races in a row outside the top three of qualifying since 2022, in the first three GPs of the year in which he won his first title. In the Sprint he finished eighth, the same result obtained last year in Indonesia, his worst. Then in the East on Sunday he won.
7 – Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing), who crashed twice in Q2, qualified sixth. On the two previous occasions in which he achieved this result, he had crashed (Indonesia and Valencia 2023). He finished the Sprint in third place. He is the only rider to have finished on the podium in all three of the first Sprints of 2024. He has his sights set on his seventh MotoGP™ victory: it would take him equal to Loris Capirossi in fourth place in the ranking of the most successful Ducati riders in MotoGP™.
8 – Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), who crashed in Q2 and then seventh, finished in fifth place in the Sprint. He hasn’t been on the podium since last year’s Catalan GP (when he took his third GP win).
9 – Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) qualified eighth. Having withdrawn from Sprint due to a technical problem, he aims to achieve his second victory in the premier class.
10 – This is the 63rd GP in a row with at least one Ducati in the first three places in qualifying. The Emilian brand will also aim to achieve the 12th victory in 12 consecutive races in MotoGP™.
