Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders will start from seventh and ninth on the starting grid.

The Moto2 riders enjoyed a completely dry Saturday qualifying session at the Sepang International Circuit, with Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder taking advantage to set their best laps of the weekend. The pair will be on the third row for the Malaysian GP, starting from seventh and ninth, respectively.

Wet patches on track left the Moto2 riders doubting their tyre selection at the start of the session. A few made a first long run, and one of those was Oliveira, who used slicks. However, his times did not improve until the conditions got better. Oliveira set the fourth fastest time -2:08.139- and Binder the 27th -2:11.053-, both far off their best laps from yesterday.

Oliveira and Binder encountered better track conditions in the qualifying session, with the asphalt remaining dry throughout the 45 minutes. Both did their work quickly, on their first stint. The Portuguese only needed one lap to break into the 2:06 mark for the first time this weekend, and another lap to set his personal best time of 2:06.617. Binder required three laps to do so, going one tenth off his teammate -2:06.741. Neither would lower their times further in the next two stints, finally placing seventh and ninth, respectively.

The penultimate race of the Moto2 season will start an hour later than usual at 1:20pm local time. Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder will try to repeat the 1-2 that they achieved both in 2015 in Moto3 and last year in Moto2.

Results (Qualifying session)
1. Alex Marquez (Kalex) 2:05.629
2. Luca Marini (Kalex) 2:06.117 +0.488
3. Fabio Quartararo (Speed Up) 2:06.295 +0.666
4. Remy Gardner (Tech 3) 2:06.347 +0.718
5. Mattia Pasini (Kalex) 2:06.439 +0.810
7. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:06.617 +0.988
9. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:06.741 +1.112

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“Today’s qualifying session at Sepang went well. We set a good lap at the beginning, but then the rest of the session was trickier. We lost some grip, even with the new tyres, but the important thing is that we head the third row and this will allow us to fight for the win in the race. The objective tomorrow will be to make a good start, push from the beginning and give everything to achieve the best possible result.”

41 BRAD BINDER
“Qualifying didn’t go badly. I feel that I still had something left in reserve, and I wasn’t able to give 100%. I couldn’t string together a perfect lap with my best sector times, although I was able to improve my times from the Free Practice sessions and get a spot on the third row. It will be interesting to analyse all the data we have from these two days ahead of tomorrow, in order to take a step forward in the warmup, push hard from the beginning and use our maximum potential for a good race and a great result.”