No rain today at the Sepang International Circuit for the penultimate qualifying day of the season which saw Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez dispute a stacked qualifying 1 session. Tech3 KTM Factory Racing’s riders will line up in twentieth and twenty-second for the Grand Prix of Malaysia.

In Free Practice 3, track conditions guided Australian Remy Gardner to use the hard front tyre, but he seemed uncomfortable with it and crashed. As he got back on his bike, he managed to register a fast lap in 2’00.126 placing him twentieth in the combined standing. In qualifying 1, an early crash prevented him from being able to do more than one fast lap, and his time in 1’59.803 placed him in P20 for Sunday’s race.

Teammate Raul Fernandez seemed to struggle all day to find comfort on the Malaysian layout. He slightly improved his time to 2’00.475 and stood twenty-third in the combined standings. In qualifying, he rode faster, in 2’00.077, and will start round 19 from P22. The Grand Prix of Malaysia, set to be tough physically, is scheduled at 15:00 (GMT+8) for twenty laps.

Remy Gardner

Grid Position: 20

Time: 1'59.803

Laps: 6

"This morning we tried the hard tyre at the front for FP3 but I crashed unfortunately. In qualifying, I also crashed on my in-lap, so I was able to push for only one lap, which is not ideal. We are 0.20 seconds from Miguel Oliveira which is not so bad. Tomorrow’s race will be really tough physically because it is going to be very warm and the humidity makes it worse. We will try to give our best for twenty laps."

Raul Fernandez

Grid Position: 22

Time: 2'00.077

Laps: 7

"We had a difficult day today in Sepang because the pace was not really there and I was not feeling comfortable. We have not really made improvements from the tests earlier this year and it is a bit difficult for me to swallow because we are struggling to understand why. I did my best, the team did so too, we are close to the other KTM bikes, but we are missing something to go faster and progress. Tomorrow is another day and we will give everything we have in the race."