Philipp Oettl scored a surprise pole position for the Austin GP in a rain-affected Moto3 qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas.
The rain that started during the Moto2 FP3 session had stopped only half an hour before the Moto3 riders took to the track for qualifying. Though most initially headed out on wet tyres for some exploratory laps to test conditions, most stuck with their dry weather set ups as the track was certain to dry quickly.
After 10 minutes it was time to switch to slicks, and it was a case of fortune favouring the bravery of those prepared to push hardest in the conditions. Oettl, who scored a third place in Indianapolis last year in similar circumstances, put in an impressive run as times tumbled.
Jorge Navarro qualifies in second, albeit half a second off of Oetll’s best time of 2:18.398. That’s a full two seconds off of Navarro’s own best time set in FP3. In these conditions, times are incidental, but it does mean a slight grid shake-up.
Enea Bastianini qualifies in third, with Jakub Kornfeil in fourth, Romano Fenati and in fifth. Adam Norrodin, who had been in a podium position before crashing in Argentina completes the second row.
Andrea Locatelli qualifies in seventh, with Jules Danilo eighth, Fabio Quartararo ninth and Livio Loi rounding out the top 10. Brad Binder will start the race from 12th behind Nicolo Bulega. The tricky conditions masked the problems of the under-powered Peugeot of John McPhee who will start from 17th.
As the rain returned it was bad news for those who hadn’t pushed for a banker lap as the track dried. Particularly affected was Niccolo Antonelli who made the mistake of initially reverting to a wet setting. For the time being, he languished in 30th position. Another victim of the tricky conditions was Argentina winner Khairul Idham Pawi, who eventually qualified in 31st.
The rain didn’t last long, however, and on such a long track only a small part of it was wet. With nothing to lose, Antonelli returned to the track on slicks with 11 minutes of the session remaining. It wasn’t long, however, until he realised conditions were too tricky to significantly improve his time and pulled into the pits again.
With three minutes left on the clock, times were still 15 seconds off of Oettl’s best. Antonelli did make a last gasp effort to improve his time, but could only manage 29th.
The weather forecast predicts a dry race tomorrow. The Moto3 race is due to start at 1700 BST.
