Miguel Oliveira places tenth on tricky first day in Texas

The first day of the second World Championship event of the year was a tough one for the Moto3 riders. Heavy rain and a completely wet track in Austin, Texas, forced the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders to go out on cut tyres and ride with caution.

Miguel Oliveira placed tenth overall, with teammates Karel Hanika twenty-second and Brad Binder twenty-seventh, as the trio tried to get as many kilometres as possible under their belts.

With a delay of 50 minutes due to a lack of marshalls on track, the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders went out on a fully wet track for the first session of the weekend. Due to a lack of grip, they preferred not to take excessive risks. Hanika, who has suffered a small crash at Turn 2 with 8 minutes remaining, was the fastest of the trio with a 2:35.937 lap, taking twelfth. Binder was close behind in thirteenth with a 2:36.096, and Oliveira seventeenth with a best of 2:36.757.

In the afternoon, the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders needed less than half a session to improve their previous times. However, the track began to dry out and made their task more difficult again. Binder crashed before the halfway mark, as did Hanika in the final 10 minutes. Fortunately, neither suffered any injury. A good last lap allowed Oliveira to climb to tenth place -2:31.070-, while teammates Hanika and Binder had to settle for 22nd -2:32.937- and 27th -2: 34.096-, respectively.

Weather forecasts for the remaining two days of the Grand Prix are for further rain. Tomorrow will see the last free practice session, followed by qualifying at 12:35pm, local time. Last year, Red Bull KTM Ajo took pole position through Jack Miller in Austin.

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“This first day has been very hard. The conditions were rather difficult; in the first session there was too much water on the track and it was difficult to get a good grip level because the circuit does not drain very well.
However, towards the end of the second session today I felt a little better and I was able to go faster. We want to be up at the top and we’re doing everything we can to improve the setup on the tighter corners, which is where I feel a little more uncomfortable.
We will see what the weather forecast is for tomorrow, but it looks set to continue raining, so we need to focus on finding a good feeling in the wet.”

Source: AJO