Tech 3 Racing Team rider Danny Kent scored a confidence-boosting 13th place on the grid for tomorrow’s inaugural Moto2 World Championship showdown at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Texas.

The British rider has been steadily building up his confidence with the Mistral 610 machine throughout the weekend, which has been a challenging experience while he’s also had to learn the long and technical COTA track.

Kent finished practice in an encouraging 18th position after improving by over four seconds between FP1 and FP3 and his rapid progress continued in qualifying on the COTA track, which features the longest straight on the calendar and a spectacular climb of 134ft from the start/finish line to the tight first corner.

A lap of 2.12.399 saw Kent further improve his pace by over a second and he climbed five places up the rankings to head the fifth row of the grid. He was less than 0.4s away from storming into the top 10 and Kent is optimistic that he can claim his first points scoring finish in the competitive Moto2 category in tomorrow’s 19-lap race.

Sundays race will be a tough one for Frenchman Louis Rossi, who has found it difficult to find a comfortable setting with his Mistral 610 machine during the weekend.

He was 1.2s faster in qualifying than in practice but his best lap of 2.14.108 left him down in 27th position.

Danny Kent 13th 2.12.399 – 17 laps:

“I am really happy with how qualifying went and to be so close to the top 10 gives my confidence a big boost. This is an amazing track but really hard to learn and that task has been made even harder while I’m trying to adapt myself to the Moto2 machine. I’ve been steadily chipping away and getting faster and faster and I’m satisfied with the progress we’ve made. I’ve made a big step with my feeling with the bike since Qatar and now it will be important to start well and try to get in a good battle so I can learn as much as possible.”


Louis Rossi 27th 2.14.108 – 14 laps:

“I am disappointed to be starting so far down the grid because we expected a much better result. But right from the first lap on this track, which is very technical and difficult to learn, it was hard for me and I have not been able to find any confidence with the bike to push harder. We’ll try and find some solutions to help me feel more comfortable but I am lacking confidence with the front and that makes it hard to push for a lap time. I will do my best in the race and hopefully I can be more competitive.”


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