The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider set an excellent on-track pace to grab second place in qualifying. Brad Binder and Karel Hanika will start from rows four and five respectively.

Oliveira, Aragon Moto3 2015

Miguel Oliveira carried his confidence from yesterday into today’s qualifying, landing a second place start –his fifth front row start this season. In addition to a front row start, the Portuguese has distinguished himself as one of the Moto3 riders with the best race pace. After making positive steps in practice, Brad Binder and Karel Hanika followed through with the eleventh and thirteenth best times of the qualifying session respectively.

Satisfied with their performance in the previous practice session, the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders prepared to lower their times for the third consecutive outing and set out their best laps. Miguel Oliveira was third in the session, with a 1:58.541 and was again among the riders with the fastest pace. Oliveira swapped provisional first position throughout the session with teammate Brad Binder, who ended the session fifth with a 1:58.826. Karel Hanika made big strides to place tenth with a 1:59.266, and never left the top ten throughout the session.

With a lap of 1:57.955 with 16 minutes remaining in the final session, it seemed that the pole position for the Aragon GP would go to Miguel Oliveira, who shortly after was just two tenths off besting the time, without any slipstream. However, it was after the fall of the checkered flag that the Italian rider Bastianini surpassed him by two tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Brad Binder set a time of 1:58.579 early in the session to place eleventh while Hanika continued to improve his time throughout the session to finally set a time of 1:58.733 to put him thirteenth.

Tomorrow’s race, beginning at 11:00 CET, will see the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders seeking a second consecutive podium following Miguel Oliveira’s Misano rostrum.

Results (Qualifying practice)
1. Enea Bastianini (Honda) 1:57.755
2. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:57.955 +0.200
3. Danny Kent (Honda) 1:57.956 +0.201
4. Jorge Martin (Mahindra) 1:58.412 +0.657
5. Jorge Navarro (Honda) 1:58.444 +0.689
11. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:58.579 +0.824
13. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:58.733 +0.978

Miguel Oliveira,
“The practices have been very positive today. We managed to have a good pace. Without the soft tires I managed a lap of almost 1:57, this gives me confidence for the race tomorrow. It will be an interesting race with Kent, Bastianini and the other riders. We’ll try to break away, I’ll see if I can push hard and get a small group at the front, it would be very interesting but it sure will not be easy. I hope to get the KTM on the podium.”

Brad Binder,
“This morning everything went well. In the afternoon, during the first outing, I was first, but then we changed to new tyres and it didn’t go as well. Like yesterday, for problems beyond our control we missed an outing. For the qualifying, we changed tyres again but it was impossible to get around well because the other riders were blocking the middle of the track. So tomorrow I’ll have to start from eleventh. I would love to start closer to the front but starting from this position is not bad. I am sure we can be in the top five.”

Karel Hanika,
“I felt very good and the bike worked very well in the corners. The team has worked to fine tune the bike. In the corners we are faster than many other riders and managed to brake harder, letting us to overtake lots of riders, but on the straights we need to find more top speed. We’ll look into fixing it for tomorrow, because I have a lot confidence that we can be in the front group. In qualifying, I made my fast lap riding alone, because I couldn’t take advantage of any slipstream that would have let me to get to the second row. Tomorrow I’ll try to enjoy myself on the bike and recover positions.”