Day 2 of the third running of the Indianapolis Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix saw far more fireworks on track compared to the much slower going opening day of action. Here are some of the highlights...

Saturday was highlighted with qualifying for all three Grand Prix classes. In 125cc ranks Marc Marquez led the way once again despite being fresh off a dislocated shoulder at the previous round in Brno. Many thought that championship had once again been sprung wide-open when the young Spaniard crashed in the Czech Republic and injured himself. This allowed title rivals Pol Espargaro and Nicolas Terol to close substantial ground in the championship and many though he would be off form this weekend and still injured. But the Red Bull Repsol rider instantly proved the naysayers wrong, leading nearly all of practice thus far and taking pole position for the race with a 1:48.124, almost half a second up on Espargaro in second. Question still remains to his strength for the race tomorrow, but things aren’t looking nearly as promising for the competition as they were coming into the weekend.

Sparks flew in MotoGP qualifying early on as Pol’s brother Aleix Espargaro on the Pramac Ducati and Tech 3 Yamaha’s Ben Spies had a close moment, one which Espargaro visibly showed signs of discuss toward. It looked as though Spies simply rolled out after his first string of laps and made his way off the racing line, in the process unintentionally getting in the Pramac Ducati rider’s way. The two easily avoided each other, though Espargaro sat up, looked back and gestured at Spies in anger. Why he was so shaken up for getting blocked ever so slightly a mere 10 minutes into the session seems quite odd, though we have no idea what his strategy was and he could have been on a hot lap early in the session.

Jorge Lorenzo, or should we say Iron Man, led the way early in MotoGP qualifying, only to have Dani Pedrosa snatch the top spot 10 minutes in. An interesting three-way train in the early going consisted for Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Pedrosa. The three traded spots and took turns running at the front, no doubt playing mind games with each other. After three laps Rossi dipped back into the pits but the Repsol Honda teammates continued to duke it out in a very strange qualifying battle; were the two working together or trying to prove to each other who is quicker?

Dovizioso then took over the top spot with 20 remaining in the session, as he and Lorenzo both put in flying laps to relegate Pedrosa to third as the second half of the session began. This is where things really heated up as everyone came in and started bolting on soft tires. Nicky Hayden went to the top of the timesheets for a few minutes near the end when the action really began. With three minutes remaining Lorenzo then took P1, only to have Spies steal it with a blisteringly-fast 1:40.105 a minute later. His time would then hold out for his first career pole position despite a last-ditch attempt by Lorenzo as the clock ticked down to zero.

Hayden would stay put in third spot, giving the Kentucky rider a front-row start for his home Grand Prix, the first MotoGP race of the season with two Americans on the front row. “This is my first front row qualifying as a Ducati rider, period, so this is good,” he said after. “It’s great to have two Americans on the front row, which is great for MotoGP here (in America). If we are going to be up with these guys this is where we needed to start so we’ll see how tomorrow goes and hopefully make the hometown crowd proud.”

Lorenzo will line up in the middle of the US-rider sandwich, but will be focused on breaking away early on. Even he was impressed by the awesome lap Spies put in, adding: “Ben’s lap was amazing. I pushed to the maximum and all we got was second but today that’s okay. Front row and second position is okay because this is all we are capable of and we will be okay for tomorrow in the race.”

Spies was excited to get pole, the first of his career, though he was still very cautious about commenting on a possible first race win tomorrow. With this pole Spies now becomes the first rider other than one of the ‘four aliens’ to qualifying on pole since Colin Edwards in China in 2008

“We can’t get ahead of ourselves now,” Spies said, “but to get the first pole for me in front of the American crowd is awesome. It was announced earlier this weekend where I will go next year so that was a relief, but now I’m trying to give as much as I can to my current team because they have done so much for me. We put it all on the line that last lap and got it. Two Americans on the front row is great. Coming into the weekend I might not have believed it, but we will give it everything we’ve got tomorrow and hopefully we will be right there.”

Espargaro fell in the early going but was able to get back to the pits and get his privateer Ducati fixed. And in a very surprising turn of events, Rossi was off track and down late in the session. The Italian lost the front shortly after bolting on his first soft tire, the crash costing him any further attempts at going for a quicker lap as he was unable to get back in the pits, his bike too damaged to run. He will start tomorrow’s race in sixth spot.

A frustrated Casey Stoner stood up after his final hot lap and got in the way of Mika Kallio, who then proceeded to run Stoner wide in one of the slow corners in retaliation. Stoner then wheelied and darted across the Finnish rider’s front tire, looking back and gesturing to his head as if to tell Kallio to be smarter. Kallio wasn’t happy and gave the Australian a gesture of his own (use your imagination), the two Ducati riders obviously enraged after runs that saw Stoner in a lowly sixth and Kallio way down in 15th.

Moto2 was the same high-paced, tightly-knit session it has proven to be all season. The end result was three-way battle at the front with Julian Simon, Scott Redding and Hector Faubel. Redding led the way the majority of the 50 minutes, only to have Faubel take it over in the last five minutes. Simon then nipped them both on his final lap, checkered flag flying. Redding was on course to possibly get back to the pointed end, but traffic on his last lap left the British youngster in third, though still on the outside of the front row. Redding has been the class of the field all weekend and looks to have the best race set-up, so watch for him to possibly contend for his first career win tomorrow.

Now we're off to the Indy Mile for a healthy dose of Flat Track action, so stay tuned for a full feature video on that tonight, which may just feature none other than Nicky Hayden. Not racing, unfortunately, but after putting it on front row in qualifying today his crew has decided to let him ride a few demo laps for the crowd!