Austin Moto3: Oettl tops rain-affected qualifying

Oettl, contesting his fourth full season in Moto3, posted the benchmark in the opening minutes of the session and could subsequently sit back and relax as raindrops did the rest of the job.

With damp patches on the track surface at the start of the session after rain had arrived late during Moto2 practice, a number riders opted to do their recon laps on wets.

But the track was more than good enough for the dry compound right away, Oettl setting the early pace on slicks.

The German continued to gradually improve with each lap, holding on to the top spot by halfway into the session, at which point the rain suddenly returned.

As the rain flags made their appearance, Estrella Galicia's practice pacesetter Jorge Navarro was among the last riders to improve, moving to within six tenths of Oettl and just 0.011s ahead of fellow Honda rider Enea Bastianini.

Just as quickly as the rain arrived, it was gone again.

With 10 minutes to go, riders began to head back out on slicks en masse but improvements were few and far between, with nobody coming even close to matching Oettl's existing benchmark.

As such, it would be a Oettl - Navarro - Bastianini front row, with Drive M7 SIC teammates Jakub Kornfeil and Adam Norrodin in fourth and sixth, split on the second row by Romano Fenati.

Andrea Locatelli was seventh, ahead of Jules Danilo, Friday pacesetter Fabio Quartararo and Livio Loi.

The two crashes of the session were Karel Hanika and Stefan Valtulini, the duo caught out by the arrival of rain mid-session.

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Philipp Oettl	Schedl GP Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	2:18.398
2	Jorge Navarro	Estrella Galicia 0,0	Honda NSF250RW	2:18.985
3	Enea Bastianini	Gresini Racing Moto3	Honda NSF250RW	2:18.996
4	Jakub Kornfeil	Drive M7 SIC Racing Team	Honda NSF250RW	2:19.068
5	Romano Fenati	SKY Racing Team VR46	KTM RC 250 GP	2:19.135
6	Adam Norrodin	Drive M7 SIC Racing Team	Honda NSF250RW	2:19.469
7	Andrea Locatelli	Leopard Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	2:19.708
8	Jules Danilo	Ongetta-Rivacold	Honda NSF250RW	2:19.790
9	Fabio Quartararo	Leopard Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	2:20.118
10	Livio Loi	RW Racing GP BV	Honda NSF250RW	2:20.230
11	Nicolo Bulega	SKY Racing Team VR46	KTM RC 250 GP	2:20.444
12	Brad Binder	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM RC 250 GP	2:20.456
13	Tatsuki Suzuki	CIP-Unicom Starker	Mahindra MGP30	2:20.499
14	Juan Francisco Guevara	RBA Racing Team	KTM RC 250 GP	2:20.649
15	Alexis Masbou	Peugeot MC Saxoprint	Peugeot MGP30	2:20.773
16	Hiroki Ono	Honda Team Asia	Honda NSF250RW	2:21.151
17	John McPhee	Peugeot MC Saxoprint	Peugeot MGP30	2:21.159
18	Francesco Bagnaia	ASPAR Mahindra Team Moto3	Mahindra MGP30	2:21.309
19	Karel Hanika	Platinum Bay Real Estate	Mahindra MGP30	2:21.379
20	Jorge Martin	ASPAR Mahindra Team Moto3	Mahindra MGP30	2:21.486
21	Andrea Migno	SKY Racing Team VR46	KTM RC 250 GP	2:21.957
22	Aron Canet	Estrella Galicia 0,0	Honda NSF250RW	2:22.232
23	Bo Bendsneyder	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM RC 250 GP	2:22.251
24	Gabriel Rodrigo	RBA Racing Team	KTM RC 250 GP	2:22.687
25	Lorenzo Petrarca	3570 Team Italia	Mahindra MGP30	2:22.794
26	Darryn Binder	Platinum Bay Real Estate	Mahindra MGP30	2:23.097
27	Maria Herrera	Team Laglisse	KTM RC 250 GP	2:23.461
28	Stefano Valtulini	3570 Team Italia	Mahindra MGP30	2:23.495
29	Joan Mir	Leopard Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	2:23.578
30	Niccolo Antonelli	Ongetta-Rivacold	Honda NSF250RW	2:24.379
31	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Gresini Racing Moto3	Honda NSF250RW	2:24.477
32	Khairul Idham Pawi	Honda Team Asia	Honda NSF250RW	2:24.640
33	Fabio Spiranelli	CIP-Unicom Starker	Mahindra MGP30	2:31.357