The Australian Red Bull KTM Ajo rider grabbed the first pole position of his career at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas. Hanika starts tomorrow from the sixth row.

Three weeks after his first victory, Jack Miller captured the first pole position of his career. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider completed a magnificent lap of 2:16.342 -a new fast lap record at the track- midway through qualifying that awarded him the position of head of the grid for tomorrow’s race. Miller’s teammate, Karel Hanika, improved on his performance in Qatar to land seventeenth on the grid, putting him on the sixth row for the race start.

The day began well for Miller, whose first outing saw him consistently fast and at the top of the time charts. However, after his second visit to the box, the Australian tested some new configurations on his KTM that did not produce the desired results and thus prevented him from lapping faster than 2:17.569, putting him seventh in the practice. On the other side of the box, teammate Hanika had entirely different results than that of his teammate. Making only one pit stop, the rookie spent the session searching for the necessary pace for the race and thus was one of the few riders able to improve his time from yesterday, marking the time at 2:18.696 to rank him sixteenth in the line-up.

Wind at the track today did not stop Jack Miller from flying during the qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas. The Aussie began fast and got faster early, lapping in the 2:16s within the first ten minutes to set his best lap -and a new track lap record- on his seventh lap. His time of 2:16.342 was 0.347s faster than the second place qualifier, Efren Vazquez. Karel Hanika followed a little over 2 seconds behind, completing his best lap of the session, and of the weekend, on the last lap with a time of 2:18.518, putting him seventeenth on the starting grid.

Following his win at the opening round of the Moto3 World Championship, Jack Miller will try to replicate said victory tomorrow at the second race of the year, beginning tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. local time. Karel Hanika will look to stay as far ahead of the Moto3 pack to continue along the improving streak he has started during this first year of his Grand Prix career.

Results – Qualifying practice
1. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:16.342
2. Efren Vazquez (Honda) 2:16.689 +0.347
3. Alex Rins (Honda) 2:16.898 +0.556
4. Alex Marquez (Honda) 2:17.352 +1.010
5. Niccolo Antonelli (KTM) 2:17.380 +1.038
17. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:18.518 +2.176

Jack Miller >> Audio (solely for radio use)

“Today was a good day for us. In every session we were able to get more comfortable with the bike and found better settings. We have a good setup for the race, but we have to continue working tomorrow morning and we’ll see where we end up. It’s nice to start from pole position but the main focus of the weekend is to have a good race tomorrow.”

Karel Hanika >> Audio (solely for radio use)

“I think we haven’t started badly, we placed in the top ten and had a good pace. But with new tires I couldn’t ride fast because I had problems at the entrance and exit of the corners, so I couldn’t lower my times. My last lap was good but could have been better, and I had to cut the throttle a little to avoid a fallen rider in front of me. Tomorrow I hope I can make up positions and reach at least twelfth or tenth.”