Motorcycling-Vinales takes pole at Grand Prix of the Americas

Apr 13, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Maverick Vinales (12) of Spain and Aprilia Racing pops a wheelie during qualifying sessions for the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales took pole position for MotoGP’s Grand Prix of the Americas after smashing the lap record on Saturday.

The Spaniard claimed pole with a time of 2:00.789, beating rookie Pedro Acosta by 0.328 seconds who was followed by Marc Marquez, last year’s champion Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.

“We are very confident. Every race, I feel stronger and stronger. I really like the Austin track, it’s a circuit that really suits my driving,” said Vinales, who won the Portuguese GP Sprint last month.

“We want to have a good race. The sprint race will be very tough but we’re going to put on a good show.”

Acosta said he was happy to have the second place in the starting grid.

“This weekend, for us it was important to see what we could do on a new circuit, and a fairly difficult circuit like this,” he said.

“We’ll see in the sprint, we’ve made changes since Portugal to fight for something. We’ll give it a go.”

Vinales’ Aprilia team mate and championship leader Jorge Martin finished sixth after crashing twice. Brad Binder, second in the standings, came in 15th.

The sprint will be held later on Saturday.

(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond and Pritha Sarkar)