Red Bull KTM Ajo rider claims sixth pole of the season from ten Grands Prix starts at Indianapolis. Karel Hanika places in the Top 10.

Jack Miller took a sixth pole position of the season and a third straight qualifying top spot on Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The current Moto3 World Championship leader carried over his excellent pace from practice and, after employing a good team strategy, took pole for tomorrow’s race. Karel Hanika took another step forward on his debut weekend at the American track to make it onto the fourth row in tenth position.

The final practice session for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix was not as calm as planned for the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders. Karel Hanika was the first to suffer a light crash 7 minutes in at Turn 10, escaping unhurt, then a few minutes later Jack Miller had a highside at Turn 4.  However, both riders improved their times from yesterday, and Miller finished in fifth position -1:41.264-, Hanika in eighteenth -1:42.002.

These times were blitzed in the qualifying session, in which Miller was the first to go round in 1:40 at the midway point. The Australian worked alongside his teammate Hanika, Danny Kent and Niklas Ajo to ride as fast as possible together. Thanks to this strategy, Miller claimed pole with his twelfth lap, setting a 1:40.727 time, whilst Hanika broke into the Top 10  with a 1:41.311 lap.

The Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix takes place at 11am local time, and will be the tenth race of the year in the Moto3 World Championship. So far, Jack Miller has four victories and leads the overall standings by 19 points. Hanika hopes to complete the race after a run of two DNFs.

Results – Qualifying practice
1. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:40.727
2. Efren Vazquez (Honda) 1:40.807 +0.080
3. Alex Marquez (Honda) 1:40.808 +0.081
4. Romano Fenati (KTM) 1:40.829 +0.102
5. Juanfran Guevara (Kalex KTM) 1:41.007 +0.280
10. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:41.311 +0.584

Jack Miller >> Audio (solely for radio use)

“Today the whole day went very well. The end result was great and I’m very happy to take another pole position and with how everything went. We worked very hard and we have a very good setup for tomorrow, with which I’m very satisfied. We can still improve on a few details, but we are very close to getting everything right. I want to thank the team for the excellent strategy that we used together with my colleagues, because it allowed to achieve the best time and help each other out.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow; I think it will be very hard because the front group will feature many riders. Hopefully I can get the best possible result.”

Karel Hanika >> Audio (solely for radio use)

“The qualifying session did not start badly. At the start we put on new tyres and I was able to lower my morning time. I had a very good feeling. During the second outing on track I also felt good, after working with Jack [Miller]. I just need to improve my feeling with the front a little, but otherwise the bike is working very well. I think I still could have gone faster, but I made a mistake. I’ve got to learn from it for the future, because I cannot pass up these opportunities. Tomorrow I will have to try to stay calm and try to be consistent in order to have a good race.”