Front row start for Almansa in Austria; Impressive comeback from David Muñoz
David Almansa had to relinquish what seemed to be a sure pole position at the very last moment in Saturday’s qualifying in Spielberg, while his Spanish compatriot David Muñoz exceeded expectations on his return to racing.
Unpredictable weather during both days of practice at the Austrian Grand Prix, round 15 of the current season, presented teams and riders with a number of challenges. In particular, cool temperatures and occasional rain each morning led to some tricky situations.
For LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP’s Moto3 team, the weekend at the Red Bull Ring, nestled in the breathtaking mountain scenery of Styria, began with the welcome news that David Muñoz had received the green light from the race doctors to make his comeback after a three-month injury break.
On the other side of the team’s garage, David Almansa continued to impressively be performing at highest level. The 20-year-old Spanish rider was the fastest out on the track on Friday. After a rain shower on Saturday morning, the track was still wet at the start of the second free practice session. Almansa’s crew, like Muñoz’s, decided not to take any risks.
In Q2 shortly after luncht time, however, Almansa immediately took the lead at the top of the timing board. With a string of fastest laps, he was far superior to the rest of the field. Unlike everyone else, he completed the session without a pit stop. Nevertheless, he got faster and faster with almost every lap. His consistency was the most impressive aspect of his performance. It wasn’t until the very end of the session that Spaniard Brian Uriarte skilfully took advantage from a slipstream of another rider in front of him during his final push and ultimately was 0.064 seconds faster than Almansa. From second place on the front row, the young Intact GP rider is nonetheless in an excellent position to fight for the win once again.
David Muñoz, meanwhile, delivered impressive performances on Friday and Saturday in Austria. After regaining a feel for the race pace and the tough conditions in Moto3 class, he finished FP1 on Friday morning in 16th place, just under two seconds behind his teammate’s fastest lap time. In the afternoon’s Practice session, the 20-year-old missed a direct advancement to Q2 by just a few thousandths of a second and finished in 15th place, nearly pulling off a minor upset.
Muñoz then advanced to Q2 on Saturday by securing second place in Q1. In Q2, the ambitious Sevillian continued his strong performance, earning the ninth starting position for the 15th race of the season.
The Moto3 race will start at 11:00 a.m. CEST, as usual.
Moto3™ Qualifying Results:
1 Brian URIARTE / SPA / Red Bull KTM Ajo / KTM / 1´39.544
2 #22 David ALMANSA / SPA / LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP / KTM / 1´39.608 +0.064
3 Alvaro CARPE / SPA / Red Bull KTM Ajo / KTM / 1´39.859 +0.315
…
9 #64 David MUÑOZ / SPA / LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP / KTM / 1´40.601 +1.058
