Steps forward for Albert Arenas at Austin, qualifies 22nd

After pole positions for Jorge Martín and John McPhee in the first two rounds of the season the Grand Prix of the Americas will see Aron Canet start from the front of the grid, the youngster having left the rest of the grid trailing in his wake today, including series leader Mir, with a Moto3 record lap of 2’14.644.

Mir and Romano Fenati were the only riders capable of coming within half a second of the Spaniard, with Nicolo Bulega over a second behind in fourth place ahead of Jorge Martín and Fabio di Giannantonio. John McPhee, the only man other than Martín and Mir to step on the podium this season, starts ninth.

There were slight improvements for the Mahindra Gaviota Aspar Team, although neither were able to close the gap significantly to the rest. Albert Arenas was the fastest Mahindra rider on track in 22nd position, 2.5 seconds off the top. The Spaniard overcame some of the problems he encountered yesterday and is happier with the set-up of his bike.

22nd Albert Arenas 2:17.141 (10 laps):
“I am happy because we have taken a few seconds off the lap time from yesterday. Today started much better than yesterday. The team found some solutions to the issues we had on Friday although we are still a little behind everybody else. We still need to improve in some areas but I am happy with the bike and I like the set-up, I would like to get a run of laps in during warm-up because so far we have not been able to.”