Tech3 KTM Factory Racing’s Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez were both looking forward to their first MotoGP qualifying day at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas. With three qualifying sessions in the bag already, strengths and weaknesses have become clearer, and one of the most obvious points to improve for both riders has been to be able to focus on one time attack to get a decent lap time done to start races from higher grid positions. However, the job was never going to be easy for our two rookies, who were also experiencing the Circuit of the Americas, very demanding physically, for the first time with a MotoGP engine. It was not the Saturday hoped for, as Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner will start from the 21st and 22nd positions.

Raul Fernandez, who admitted yesterday to be struggling with the front of the bike when trying to do a time attack, did not seem to encounter a good feeling with his KTM RC16 today. During Free Practice 3, he slightly improved his lap time compared to yesterday (-0.228), but appeared to be struggling again to do a fast lap, and was therefore on the Q1 entry list. When Qualifying time came around at 14:10 local time (GMT-5), it would have been easy for the Spanish rookie to get confused by the behaviour of the other riders, all waiting for each other without anyone wanting to set off ahead, but Raul kept his focus and managed to improve again his time to 2’04.140 (his best time of the weekend so far), and will start the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas from the 21st position.

After a good first day in the office on Friday, Remy Gardner used the full FP3 and FP4 sessions to continue the work started yesterday. At the end of his third run this morning, he was able to improve his time (2’04.099), taking a good step towards the right direction. At the end of the combined practices, he sat in P20, meaning that the Australian was going into Qualifying 1, alongside his teammate and KTM Factory riders. Unfortunately, Remy suffered a small crash within the first laps of the qualifying session, resulting in a time loss, and was unable to take advantage of the full fifteen minutes. His best lap time was 2’04.185, less rapid than the one registered during Free Practice 4, and he will start Sunday’s race behind his teammate, in P22. The Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas will begin at 13:00 (GMT-5).

Raul Fernandez

Grid Position: 21

Time: 2'04.140

Laps: 7

"We had a difficult day today. In a similar way to yesterday, we had a good pace, but we struggled to do a fast lap with the qualifying tyres. Tomorrow is the race, it is an important day and I will try to do my best. Thanks to the team for their job."

Remy Gardner

Grid Position: 22

Time: 2'04.185

Laps: 6

"It is a great shame that I crashed. In order to do the lap time, I had to push a lot. It appeared that when I was overriding, the times were improving, but unfortunately I went too far and it ended up with a crash. On the first flying lap, I had a really good sector one and was confident, but it got cancelled because of a yellow flag. After my crash, I lost a bit of confidence for the second run and was not able to improve my time from this morning. Tough day in the office, but hopefully we can come back from this tomorrow."