Jorge Martin continues excellent form, qualifies 10th at Indianapolis
The second day of the Indianapolis Grand Prix saw something of a return to the norm in the Moto3 class as Danny Kent returned to the top of the time sheets in both free practice and qualifying.
With just 0.088 seconds separating him from Miguel Oliveira in second place tomorrow’s race promises to be a closer affair than Sachsenring, with just over a second crossing the top twenty on the grid. Only four riders broke the 1’41 barrier today, with Kent clocking a new pole record of 1’40.703.
MAPFRE Team Mahindra rider Jorge Martin came to Indianapolis on the back of a career best result at Sachsenring last time out and he has continued that good form here, closing in on the elusive 1’40 mark with a best effort of 1’41.242. Despite this being a completely new circuit for him the youngster is confident of a points-scoring finish tomorrow.
His team-mates Juanfran Guevara and Pecco Bagnaia had less luck today, the Spaniard crashing out in qualifying and losing several places on the grid, qualifying back in 22nd, with the Italian two places further back after losing his way with his set-up.
10th Jorge Martín 1.41.242 (16 laps):
“In general we are very happy, our work is paying off and we have picked up where we left off in Germany. We are close to the top but we need to take the next step. We have had a good day today, I lapped well on my own this morning and in the afternoon I got some more strong laps in on my own on the hard tyre. We had some chatter from the rear in qualifying but we managed to qualify in the top ten, our pace is good so hopefully if we can catch a slipstream tomorrow we can stay with the lead group. We have done a lot of tyre testing but we still haven’t decided for tomorrow. We are all very close but we’ll fight for a top result.”
22nd Juanfran Guevara 1.41.822 (11 laps):
“We were hoping for a top fifteen position in qualifying and I set my best time on my second lap. After that we put the hard tyre in to work towards the race but in the third corner I crashed. It was a setback but we still got some valuable information for tomorrow. The track condition and temperature changed, so maybe that changed the performance of the hard tyres and that’s what caused the crash. Anyway, we are on the right lines with the set-up, we just need to iron out some small things. We can be optimistic because our pace is good, so even though we are starting from a long way back, if we get a good start we can look forward to a good race tomorrow.”
Source: Aspar Media
