Saturday was a bittersweet day for the Red Bull KTM Ajo team at the Red Bull Spanish Grand Prix. Niccolo Antonelli took a step forward in qualifying to place sixth, whilst there were difficulties in the session for Bo Bendsneyder -24th. Track conditions for the Moto3 World Championship riders at Jerez Circuit were perfect, allowing them to improve their times from yesterday and gain information for the race on Sunday -for which dry weather is forecast. Free Practice 3 was also held in good conditions, and the Red Bull KTM Ajo team took the opportunity to regain their feeling in the dry. After completing 18 laps apiece of the Andalusian track, Bendsneyder had a best time of 1:47.792 -15th- and Antonelli a 1:47.843 for 18th. During qualifying, Antonelli took a big step forward with respect to the previous session. The Italian was able to set a time of 1:46.757 on his second stint, improving his previous best lap by more than a second. With this result, Antonelli will be sixth on the grid for the Spanish round -fulfilling his goal of qualifying on one of the front three rows. For teammate Bendsneyder it was a difficult session, as despite continuous improvement he placed 24th -1:47.501- and will round off from row 8 on the starting grid tomorrow.
64 BO BENDSNEYDER
“This second day at Jerez has been difficult, because we had high expectations from the good test we did here but things have not been easy. The truth is that in the tests we tried many different setups and I was always fast, whilst this weekend we don’t seem to be managing it. It must be something to do with my riding. Now we have to check the data and see where we can improve. We hope to find some solutions in the warmup which allow us to have a good race and pick up some points. We will work hard and hope that tomorrow everything will go better.”
Results QP
| POS | Rider | TEAM | Fastest lap |
| 1 | Jorge MARTIN | Del Conca Gresini Moto3 | 1’46.004 |
| 2 | Aron CANET | Estrella Galicia 0,0 | 1’46.441 |
| 3 | Romano FENATI | Marinelli Rivacold Snipers | 1’46.518 |
| 4 | Nicolo BULEGA | SKY Racing Team VR46 | 1’46.655 |
| 5 | Marcos RAMIREZ | Platinum Bay Real Estate | 1’46.700 |
| 6 | Niccolò ANTONELLI | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 1’46.757 |
| 7 | Tatsuki SUZUKI | SIC58 Squadra Corse | 1’46.788 |
| 8 | Andrea MIGNO | SKY Racing Team VR46 | 1’46.835 |
| 9 | Joan MIR | Leopard Racing | 1’46.838 |
| 10 | Darryn BINDER | Platinum Bay Real Estate | 1’46.860 |
| 11 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Del Conca Gresini Moto3 | 1’46.866 |
| 12 | Juanfran GUEVARA | RBA BOE Racing Team | 1’46.952 |
| 13 | Albert ARENAS | Mahindra Northgate Aspar | 1’46.966 |
| 14 | Enea BASTIANINI | Estrella Galicia 0,0 | 1’47.000 |
| 15 | Ayumu SASAKI | SIC Racing Team | 1’47.061 |
| 16 | Gabriel RODRIGO | RBA BOE Racing Team | 1’47.090 |
| 17 | Lorenzo DALLA PORTA | Mahindra Northgate Aspar | 1’47.195 |
| 18 | Livio LOI | Leopard Racing | 1’47.308 |
| 19 | Adam NORRODIN | SIC Racing Team | 1’47.329 |
| 20 | Vicente PEREZ | Reale Avintia Academy | 1’47.385 |
| 21 | Jakub KORNFEIL | Peugeot MC Saxoprint | 1’47.386 |
| 22 | Philipp OETTL | Südmetall Schedl GP Racing | 1’47.394 |
| 23 | Maria HERRERA | AGR Team | 1’47.436 |
| 24 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 1’47.501 |
| 25 | Jules DANILO | Marinelli Rivacold Snipers | 1’47.506 |
| 26 | John MCPHEE | British Talent Team | 1’47.634 |
| 27 | Marco BEZZECCHI | CIP | 1’47.661 |
| 28 | Kaito TOBA | Honda Team Asia | 1’47.714 |
| 29 | Tony ARBOLINO | SIC58 Squadra Corse | 1’47.742 |
| 30 | Manuel PAGLIANI | CIP | 1’47.760 |
| 31 | Nakarin ATIRATPHUVAPAT | Honda Team Asia | 1’48.545 |
| 32 | Raul FERNANDEZ | Mahindra MRW Aspar Team | 1’48.555 |
| 33 | Patrik PULKKINEN | Peugeot MC Saxoprint | 1’49.274 |
Source: ajo.fi, motogp.com
