Beaubier 14th, Roberts 21st On Opening Day At Circuit Of The Americas

Cameron Beaubier ended up 14th on the opening day of practice for Sunday’s Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas. File photo courtesy of American Racing.

With rain forecasted for Austin, Texas, on Saturday, getting into the top 14 in today’s Moto2 practice sessions may be of the utmost importance and Cameron Beaubier made that happen, the American Racing team rider ending up 14th in FP2 at the Circuit of The Americas on Friday afternoon. If it rains tomorrow, Beaubier will slot directly into Q2 on Saturday.

Finally on a racetrack he knows well, Beaubier’s best lap of COTA came on the 13th of his 14 laps in Friday’s bone-dry afternoon Q2 session, his 2:11.255 just 1.3 seconds from Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Raul Fernandez. Beaubier’s best qualifying effort of the season so far was 13th in the Grand Prix of Portugal.

Fernandez, in his first visit to COTA, led both sessions on Friday with his 2:09.880 the quickest on the day in Moto2. Fernandez topped his teammate Remy Gardner, the World Championship points leader just .199 of a second behind the Spaniard. Elf Marc VDS’ Sam Lowes completed the provisional front row.

Italtrans Racing’s Joe Roberts, meanwhile, will be hoping for dry weather tomorrow as he ended FP2 in 21st with a best of 2:11.615.