Aron Canet posted his best qualifying performance of the season to date at the Circuit of the Americas thanks to a 13^th place in Q2 while Deniz Oncu was 26^th.

Conditions were markedly cooler at the undulating Circuit of the Americas on Saturday than the previous day. Ambient temperatures were only 20 degrees during Q2, which was 9 down on Friday.

The afternoon Q1 session was red flagged early on after Ayumu Sasaki crashed at Turn 4 and his bike needed to be retrieved. After it was restarted, there was a slight delay to Q2 that ran after.

Sunday’s Moto2 race will get underway at 13:15 local time and will be held over 16 laps.

Aron Canet, 13^th – 2’06.147

After a tricky Friday in Texas, Aron worked hard with his crew that evening on bike set-up to find some improvements. He then ended the morning FP2 session in 17^th.

Further tweaks aided the Spaniard in qualifying. Aron felt strong in Q1, when he set the 4^th fastest time.

And the 26-year old carried that positivity into Q2. A late lap lifted him to 13^th. More importantly, his feeling aboard his Boscoscuro machine was much improved, which has given him confidence for Sunday’s race.

“Qualifying was one of the best sessions of the year so far”

Aron’s comments:

“I’m happy because I made a step ahead with my riding style and the bike today. I was able to understand many things in that session. Qualifying was one of the best sessions of the year so far, and not because of the result – more because of how the bike was working. Let’s see for tomorrow. For sure, it will be a long, long race. We need to manage the tyres super well and also my physical condition as not many tracks are as tough as this one. As always, we’ll be giving it our all.”

Deniz Oncu, 26^th – 2’07.260

After a tough Friday in Austin, Deniz felt he made a step forward in Saturday morning’s FP2 as he placed 19^th.

The Turkish rider pieced together five consecutive flying laps in Q1 when it was restarted after the red flag.

Still not completely comfortable, Deniz ended Q1 in 12^th place, 1.4s from the fastest time which means he’ll start from 26^th on tomorrow’s grid.

“I can say the difference compared to yesterday is clear”

Deniz’s comments:

“So, qualifying here in America is finished. I’m a bit angry as we still aren’t where we want to be. Anyway, I need to take the positives and there were some small improvements today. Still, we haven’t found the perfect feeling but I can say the difference compared to yesterday is clear. We’ll continue working on the bike to improve my feelings. Also, myself, there are some things I can do to gain a bit more speed. Tomorrow is a new day. It will be a long race so let’s push all the way through and see how it goes.”