Raindrops fall just one minute too early for Loi

It was just a short and small shower that hit the Circuit of the Americas in the middle of qualifying. Livio Loi was in tenth at the time the first drops fell and tried his best to set another fast lap. But the rain came just one minute too early and a little mistake in the final corner cost RW Racing GP’s Belgian rider a better position on the startgrid for the Moto3 race of the GP of the Americas.

RW Racing GP team manager Jarno Janssen was nevertheless satisfied with tenth. “We were a bit cautious bearing in mind the wrong choice we made last week. So we waited to see what was going to happen. Only Phillip Oettl was out on slicks, the rest were on rain tyres. When we saw Oettl had made the best choice, we sent Livio out on slicks as well. He was one of the first on track with the right tyres.”

In the morning session (FP3) Loi had showed he was fast, with third position, and the outlook for qualifying was promising. But during the Moto2 practice not long before the qualifying for Moto3 a short but heavy downpour hit the Texan track and the circumstances became quite tricky.

While half of the pack had to come back in to change tyres, Loi was trying to find his rhythm on the drying track. He had just found his mojo and was in a fast lap when drops began to fall again. After ten minutes the track was drying out again and like most of the others Loi went out again, but none of them were able to match the lap times from the beginning of the session and so Loi will start from tenth in tomorrow’s Moto3 race.

Livio Loi - 10 (2.20,230)

“Waiting a bit and going out on slicks was the right decision. We knew it could start raining again any minute, so I was in a hurry, but it took me a few laps to find the rhythm and the confidence in the different circumstances. I was building up speed and just when I was in the middle of a fast lap it started raining again. I tried to finish it but in doing so I was very close to the limits and I made a slight mistake in the last turn. That cost me a second or so and therefore I couldn’t improve my lap time. It’s a bit unfortunate, because I could have been fifth or so, but tenth is not too bad. We’ll have to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow.”