Pedro Acosta will start from second place in the Grand Prix of the Americas, with Albert Arenas thirteenth.

The Grand Prix of the Americas qualifying sessions were held this Saturday. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 duo of Pedro Acosta and Albert Arenas went straight into Q2, and the former took second on the grid, Arenas claiming thirteenth.

Practice 3 allowed the pair to finetune their setups. Acosta improved his times from the previous day and worked hard to stay at the top of the timesheets. After completing ten laps, Acosta set the fourth best time on his penultimate lap, a 2:09.751. Arenas worked to find a good pace despite an increase in temperatures. He was unable to improve his times from Friday and finished in nineteenth position, hindered by a small crash in the final moments, and clocked a 2:11.257. Acosta and Arenas were fourth and twelfth, respectively, on the combined timesheets.

In Q2, Acosta and Arenas experienced high temperatures at the Circuit of the Americas, needing to manage their tyres and set a good time for a strong position on the grid. Acosta set the best time with three minutes remaining in the session, although in the last few moments he had first place snatched from him by only 0.020s. With a time of 2:09.452, his best this weekend, he secured second on the grid and will start from the front row for the second time this season. Arenas rode alone in search of a good lap time. He focused on being consistent and improving his times, although he didn’t feel completely comfortable. Arenas will start from the fifth row, in thirteenth, after setting a time of 2:10.411 on his fifth lap of seven.

The 16-lap Moto2 Grand Prix of the Americas race will take place on Sunday at 12:15pm local time.

Results (Qualifying session)
1. Celestino Vietti (Kalex) 2:09.432
2. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:09.452 +0.020
3. Filip Salac (Kalex) 2:09.548 +0.116
4. Bo Bendsneyder (Kalex) 2:09.589 +0.157
5. Alonso Lopez (Boscoscuro) 2:09.751 +0.319
13. Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:10.411 +0.979

#37 PEDRO ACOSTA

“Today there were many crashes and the yellow flags hindered us when it came to setting a good time. It was difficult to put in a clean lap and in the end we managed it, although we missed out on pole position in the last few minutes. We will see what kind of race awaits us tomorrow, but it will be tough. It’s important that we are able to manage the tyres well because it is a very demanding circuit and it is quite hot. We are starting from a good position and we will try to take advantage of it.”

#75 ALBERT ARENAS

“It’s been a busy day in Austin. We went directly into Q2 and tried to set a good time. I managed to do 3 laps with a similar time in qualifying, pushing as hard as possible. It was hard for me to go fast, but at least we found some consistency. We will keep working with the team to see where we can get more speed from. Tomorrow will be a very demanding race and we will see exactly where we are.”