Danny Kent and Niklas Ajo finish preseason at Jerez satisfied with seventh and the twelfth best times, respectively, over three-day test.

Today the 2014 preseason came to a close, just one week before the start of the first free practice sessions at the Qatar Grand Prix. Husqvarna riders Danny Kent and Niklas Ajo were satisfied with the setups established over the past two months of testing and are ready for the first race of the season. Kent and Ajo finished their visit to Jerez with the seventh -1:46.547- and twelfth -1:46.768- best times, respectively, on the combined timesheets.

The Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo rider lowered his time from yesterday in the first session of the day, with a time of 1:46:553. In the next runout, Kent continued at a speedy pace, with a best time just 6 thousandths of a second off his previous best. With his preparations completed and satisfied with his pace, the Briton rounded off his preseason with 13 laps in the final stint.

Niklas Ajo had been consistent but lacking a hot lap from this preseason, but he changed this in the second session of the day. For the first time at this visit to Jerez, Ajo went round in under 1:47, setting a 1:46.768 lap. Following this, he put in just two further laps. In the end, the Avant Tecno Husqvarna rider took the twelfth fastest time on a very crowded timesheet -just half a second off the best lap, set by Jack Miller.

The official launch for Husqvarna in the Moto3 World Championship is next week in Qatar, at the first of eighteen Grands Prix to be held this season.
 
Combined Standings – Day 3
1. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:46.326
2. Alex Marquez (Honda) 1:46.359 +0.033
3. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:46.381 +0.055
4. Jakub Kornfeil (KTM) 1:46.388 +0.062
5. Efren Vazquez (Honda) 1:46.392 +0.066
7. Danny Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo) 1:46.547 +0.221
12. Niklas Ajo (Avant Tecno Husqvarna Ajo) 1:46.768 +0.442

Combined Standings – Day 1/2/3
1. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:46.259
2. Alex Marquez (Honda) 1:46.359 +0.100
3. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:46.381 +0.122
4. Jakub Kornfeil (KTM) 1:46.388 +0.129
5. Efren Vazquez (Honda) 1:46.392 +0.133
7. Danny Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo) 1:46.547 +0.288
12. Niklas Ajo (Avant Tecno Husqvarna Ajo) 1:46.768 +0.509

Danny Kent,
“It hasn’t been a bad test, because we improved on the last visit here. My times are inside the Top 10, which is difficult as I think many riders were faster than the pole time. The main thing is that we have found a good base setup and are ready for Qatar. We’re feeling confident, as some other riders have just set faster one-off laps whilst we have found a good pace. We’re ready for Qatar.”

Niklas Ajo,
“This third day was a little bit better than the previous ones. Today we also did a lot of laps and were very consistent, we tested some things out and we feel very good after this test. Of course we tried to up the pace a little, as if it were qualifying, and in the end we had some quite good laps. The eventual lap time was not the best, but it was quite good and we can be happy with this. We are ready for Qatar and we’ve been ready for a long time already, so now things are even better.”