Lap occasions improved dramatically within the hour-long afternoon session in comparison with FP1 earlier at the moment, with Martin blasting the lap file set by Francesco Bagnaia final 12 months of 2m01.892s with a 2m01.397s.
The Pramac rider, who leads the standings by 18 factors, beat FP1 pacesetter Maverick Vinales on the manufacturing facility Aprilia by 0.076 seconds.
Seven-time COTA race winner Marc Marquez was third with a late 2m01.806s on his year-old Gresini Ducati, as Bagnaia lifted himself into Q2 security late on in fourth.
Martin set the preliminary tempo in second apply with a 2m04.429s, which was immediately crushed by Ducati’s Enea Bastianini with a 2m04.208s.
Pedro Acosta adopted this up with a 2m03.578s on his Tech3 GasGas, earlier than Martin edged clear seconds later with a 2m03.036s inside the primary 10 minutes of the session.
This could stand because the benchmark for the following 20 minutes till Vinales, his Aprilia fitted with a brand new mushy rear tyre, fired in a 2m02.983s.
Martin adopted shut behind, although, and re-established himself on the prime of the timesheets with a 2m02.888s.
Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Group
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photographs
One other quarter-hour handed earlier than Vinales as soon as once more took prime spot away from Martin with a 2m02.394s, which was adopted up by a 2m02.244s from VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.
However Martin was blowing up the timing screens behind this duo and flashed throughout the beginning/end line with slightly below 13 minutes remaining with a brand new lap file of 2m01.397s.
Vinales was the one rider to place this time below risk on his remaining time assault lap however got here up 0.076s quick with a 2m01.473s.
Marc Marquez accomplished the highest three with a remaining lap of 2m01.806s, whereas Bagnaia ended the session fourth having sat outdoors of the Q2 locations in twelfth as second apply entered its closing moments.
Acosta accomplished the highest 5 and is the one KTM rider contained in the Q2 locations in the mean time, with manufacturing facility counterpart Brad Binder the next-best RC16 in 14th – 0.585s adrift of the 19-year-old rookie.
Aleix Espargaro was sixth on the sister manufacturing facility workforce Aprilia, as Franco Morbidelli bagged his first Q2 look as a Pramac Ducati rider.
Bastianini, Di Giannantonio and his VR46 team-mate Marco Bezzecchi rounded out the highest 10.
Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez narrowly missed Q2 locations for house workforce Trackhouse Racing’s first Americas GP, whereas Fabio Quartararo was the main rider for a Japanese model in seventeenth on his Yamaha.
A crash for Joan Mir on the finish of the session left him in twentieth, with LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco the main HRC consultant in nineteenth.
