Red Bull KTM Ajo rider takes second qualifying top spot of the season after leading every practice session. Hanika will start from sixth row.

Jack Miller had a great second day at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, taking a second pole position in three races. The Australian was also the fastest in the morning practice session, before heading the timesheet from start to finish in the grid-deciding afternoon run. He set a new circuit record of 1:49.200 in the process. Teammate Karel Hanika was sixteenth in qualifying, after suffering a crash in the latter stages of the session.

Going three-for-three in the free practice sessions for the Red Bull Grand Prix of Argentina, Jack Miller was the leader of FP3 this morning and continually improved his lap times -ending up just 0.020 off the 1:50 mark. Before that, Miller selflessly took the time to help guide his teammate around the track, with Hanika making the most of the opportunity to set a personal best time of 1:51.232 and place seventeenth. A small crash at Turn 2 prevented the rookie from completing the final five minutes of the session.

Just like at Austin, Miller went out looking to seal pole position early on in qualifying. He was the first to go round in under 1:50, in the opening ten minutes of the session. However, his best lap came later, after a great job alongside his team to set a spectacular 1:49.200. Hanika also made the most of the strategy of accompanying his teammate to clock a 1:50.487, but fell at Turn 9 with three minutes to go and lost his chance of bettering a sixth row start.

Jack Miller leads the Moto3 standings and Karel Hanika is the top rookie to date, and the Red Bull KTM Ajo team will look to keep things that way at round three tomorrow. The Australian has taken two wins in a row and the Czech is fresh from claiming a first Top 10 finish. The race begins tomorrow at 11am local time.

Results – Qualifying practice
1. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:49.200
2. Efren Vazquez (Honda) 1:49.252 +0.052
3. Danny Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo) 1:49.617 +0.417
4. Jakub Kornfeil (KTM) 1:49.785 +0.585
5. Romano Fenati (KTM) 1:49.856 +0.656
16. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:50.487 +1.287

Jack Miller >> Audio (solely for radio use)

“It’s been a good day; we are happy with how the bike is working. We have done a good job and we have a really good setup for tomorrow’s race. I have a lot of confidence in the bike and think that the tyres will hold up for the distance. We shall see what happens tomorrow, and I can’t wait to get out there racing.”

Karel Hanika >> Audio (solely for radio use)

“Qualifying started very well, with a time that allowed me to momentarily go up to fourth place. Later on I didn’t feel completely comfortable and we made some small changes, which gave us good results. I was on a very fast lap, improving my bests for each sector, when I crashed. We will start from sixth row, and I think that the race will be similar to Austin.”