Masia Back On Pole Position With Honda
Circuit Of The AmericasJaume Masia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) rode to his first pole position of the year at the Circuit of the Americas this afternoon, bettering his closest rival by 0.101 seconds at the end of a frantic Q2 qualifying session.
This was the 22-year-old Spaniard’s first pole since the 2020 French Grand Prix.
There were plenty of minor tumbles as riders fought to extract the maximum from their 250cc four-stroke machines from this bumpy, slippery, situated outside the bustling Texas city of Austin.
Honda’s next best-placed rider is Matteo Bertelle (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW), the 19-year-old Italian going eighth fastest, his best grid slot it what’s his first full World Championship season. Bertelle was just over a second behind Masia around this super-long circuit with its 20 corners.
Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) dominated the Argentine GP two weeks ago for a first victory of his 2023 season. however, today the 25-year-old from Chiba had to be content with tenth, missing the third row of the gird by just three hundredths of a second.
Romano Fenati (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW) and Kaito Toba (Sic58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) will start from the fifth row of the grid.
Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) made a great start to qualifying, leading the Q1 session but finally the 17-year-old from Kanoya missed promotion to Q2 and will therefore start the race from 19th. Team-mate Mario Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) ended the day in 25th, putting the 19-year-old Indonesian on row eight.
Tomorrow’s third race of the 21-round Moto3 season is followed by a return to Europe, which starts with the Spanish Grand Prix on 30th April.
For sure one thing is quite clear for tomorrow, with the bike. I’m very happy and I want to say thanks to my team for the amazing job they are doing. I will enjoy the race tomorrow and I also hope to have some good luck.
I've had a bit of bad luck in qualifying. I put my target on two riders, but both crashed. Then I had the option to do just one flying lap. The important is that I'm feeling good on the bike. I improved a lot my lap time from last year. The position could be better, but the gap isn't so far. My target tomorrow is to be in the group, finishing the race. I have confidence because we still have some minor details to change for tomorrow.
In FP3 the track was complicated, and I did only a few laps to get the feeling, not to find a lap time. It was a shame because I wanted to do a good lap to enter Q2 directly. In Q1, I started riding alone, but I made some mistakes, and the lap wasn't good. On the second outing, I rode with the group, and again some errors prevented me from entering Q2. I don't know what to expect for tomorrow; I hadn't the option to do a race simulation, which means I don't know which is my actual pace.
