Tech3 KTM Factory Racing’s Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner continued their campaign in Thailand today, under the sun this time in completely dry conditions. 

Due to a severe stomach ache already present on Friday, Raul Fernandez had to skip the Free Practice 3 this morning in order to save his energy for the afternoon sessions. When he returned to the action, his FP4 was kept quite short as he rode only four laps. When qualifying time came around, the Spaniard made the best of his health situation and his best lap in 1’30.566 (+0.985 seconds) placed him sixteenth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Teammate Remy Gardner took a good start to Saturday and was sixteenth of FP3, 0.723 seconds away from the best time. In the afternoon, track conditions got hotter adding an extra difficulty to the task, but it did not stop the Moto2 World Champion from giving his all. With a personal best in 1’30.602, the Australian rookie will start the OR Thailand Grand Prix from P18, scheduled on Sunday at 15:00 (GMT+7), for twenty-six laps. 

Raul Fernandez

Grid Position: 16

Time: 1'30.566

Laps: 8

"I have not been feeling well today and this morning we decided to skip FP3 to get as much rest as possible for the FP4 and qualifying. When I came back, I was feeling good, but I had not been eating, and if you don’t eat, you don’t recover. The FP4 session itself was not great, but it was not bad either I would say. But in qualifying, it was tough. I started with three laps and on the third one my stomach already hurt, so we will see how we feel tomorrow for the race."

Remy Gardner

Grid Position: 18

Time: 1'30.602

Laps: 8

"The day has been quite ok today although I am a bit dissatisfied with the position. We are close to being thirteenth I think so it was not what I had hoped for. I did my lap on my own which is good, but I lost time in sectors 1 and 2 in the long straights, whilst I felt good in sectors 3 and 4. For tomorrow, we still need to analyse whether we will use soft or medium tyres. We have tried both today and each were not bad, so we will have a decision to make tomorrow morning. It will be key to start the race well and manage the tyres, and if we manage to do that, we can do a good race on Sunday."