Pasini, Marquez, Lowes strike back before qualifying

The rain held off for the majority of the session, with the battle for pole looking extremely tight

In the final Moto2™ session before qualifying, Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Racing Team) shot to the top of the timing sheets in FP3 on his final run – with his Friday morning mechanical issues well behind him. The Italian edged out Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) by 0.034 seconds, with the former Moto3™ World Champion looking strong for a front row start in Texas.

Sam Lowes (Swiss Innovative Investors) jumped up to third in the latter stages of the session, crossing the line just ahead of Pasini on the track when they both put in their best times of the morning. Overall fastest on the combined times is still Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) though, his FP3 time of 2:11.104 is yet to be beaten – he finished fourth this morning, 0.163 off the World Championship leader.

Joe Roberts (NTS RW Racing GP) unfortunately crashed in FP3, thankfully the American was ok – he’ll be looking to bounce back in qualifying and, if it’s wet, we could well see a repeat of the heroics he produced Argentina.

With rain forecast, the Moto2™ qualifying looks set to be eventful. The intermediate class will be back out at 15:05 local time (GMT -5).

For the full set of results, click here!