MotoGP COTA FP1: Marc Marquez leads FP1

October 1, 2021 EMR Writer

Marc Marquez leads FP1 at COTA, is anyone really surprised?

Marc Marquez is P1 at COTA! In other news the sky is blue and MotoGP is the best sport in the world. MotoGP has returned to America for the first time in 2 1/2 years with many riders running special liveries and even number fonts with both Suzuki boys donning special helmets and Joan Mir running his number with the font of 1993 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz, a great tribute to the fellow Suzuki world champion.

Marquez led a Ducati duo with both Jack Miller and Johann Zarco looking incredibly strong despite Zarco very recently undergoing arm pump surgery just over a week ago, Miller stayed well within the clutches of Marquez eventually finishing only 0.167 seconds back. Miller is looking pretty strong this weekend and is motivated by his teammate Francesco Bagnaia’s back-to-back wins. Miller, much like Marquez will benefit from the anti-clockwise nature of the track due to riding dirt track in his youth, don’t count Miller out for a win on Sunday!

Johann Zarco finished in a strong third despite his recent surgery, he is looking very strong already and is desperate to take his first-ever MotoGP victory this season. Rounding out the top five were Miguel Oliveira and Pol Espargaro, both riders haven’t featured too heavily in the top five all year long despite the odd strong result. Honda are aiming to completely revamp their bike for 2022 to enable them to fight for the title with Oliveira working to achieve the same goal with KTM after their rollercoaster season.

Ex-teammates and rivals Alex Marquez and Alex Rins finished in P6 and P7, both riders not the best of friends, they finished ahead of Francesco Bagnaia in eighth who is looking to add a third consecutive victory to his tally this year to claw back some more points to Fabio Quartararo in the title fight, Fabio finishing the session in P15 and once again showing his weakness in wet conditions.

Rounding out the top 10 was a KTM duo of Brad Binder and Iker Lecuona, both riders have proven capabilities of riding in wet conditions and have proven strength in making up lots of positions during races, you can expect some strong results this weekend! Joan Mir finished in P12 with Jorge Martin way down in P19!

Full results –