Zarco celebrates Moto2 title with pole

Laurent Fellon and Johann Zarco with shoutout

Freshly crowned Moto2 champion Johann Zarco takes his seventh pole of the season ahead of Thomas Luthi and Jonas Folger.

Ajo Motorsport’s Zarco set the fastest ever lap by a Moto2 bike around the Twin Ring Motegi, a 1’50.339, shaving over half a second off Tito Rabat’s 2014 Pole Record (1’50.854). The Frenchman managed to set this time despite cooler conditions on Saturday afternoon (Track temp. 23˚C) to finish 0.171s ahead of Derendinger Racing Interwetten Thomas Luthi. It was Luthi’s first front row start since Argentina.

AGR Team’s Jonas Folger (+0.577s) was a further 0.406s back from Luthi as he completed the front row in his best Qualifying performance since the Catalan GP. Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes (+0.614s) heads up the second row in fourth. The British rider managed to set the exact same time as Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins (5th), but starts ahead of the Spaniard due to his next best lap. Rins missed out on the front row for the first time in six races.

Petronas Raceline Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin equalled his best Qualifying performance of the season and will start from the back of the second row in sixth, but was 0.947s off the pace of Zarco.

 

Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Takaaki Nakagami will start from seventh at his home grand prix ahead of Axel Pons (AGR Team), Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Racing) who completed the top ten.

Reigning Moto2™ World Champion Tito Rabat is sitting out the rest of the weekend after being declared unfit at the end of FP1 with his broken left radius, hence why Zarco was crowned champion on Friday.

Philipp Oettl he hit the tire decision with 3rd place

Philipp and Peter is a drinking beer from the drunk with coughs and sneezes

In Indianapolis and Philipp Oettl showed a brilliant race. The secured by an absolutely flawless race the first podium finish of his GP career. I still can not believe it.

Huge cheers in Schedl team: Philipp Oettl had after his fall in qualifying set off from last place, but the 19-year-old in made decision and moved to the warm-up lap on slick tires. This paid off. Oettl plowed through the field, opponents snapped to opponents and secured 3rd place behind Livio Loi and John McPhee.

After the podium ceremony www.speedweek.com met the overjoyed Peter Oettl: That was huge. Philipp Oettl has taken this decision all by himself. He said right away that he comes after the warm-up lap, when it is not raining . We have prepared everything and changed the tires the fastest. Our team has worked perfectly. Before the race I was in the paddock of the American championship, because these drivers had completed a wet training . I spoke with Josh Hayes and JD Beach. They told me that the grip is perfect even in the rain. I could not give to Philipp Oettl. He has perfectly implemented. He has only done right pressure, but in the end he has secured the place, what was right.

Father's Peter Oettl stood for the last time in 1996 at the Grand Prix of Mugello on the podium. He won the race in the 125cc class. Philipp Oettl and Schedl GP Racing made ​​in the Moto3 race at Indianapolis everything right. Indianapolis is always a difficult track for me. After the fall in qualifying was really down. I had to start from the back. But my team did a very good job. I had always hoped for dry conditions, but now i'm third and very happy. My team is doing a good job, the KTM is a good bike.

I do not know what to say, Philipp Oettl laughed Peter Oettl talking to www.speedweek.com, i said that i want to replace the tires after the formation lap when it is not raining. That was true. The first few laps I then risked a lot, there were only a few places wet. At first i did not see that i'm so far ahead. I saw and then already rank 6 and then I was third . It all happened too fast. Then i saw that my boss was very big on Fenati. So i did not risk so much at the end. It was very difficult not to think of the podium. My arm was at the end of the race very hurt, but it went.

Can you even believe what you've just done? No, not yet really. I do not know what to say. From last place on the grid shelf can not you dare, unless you're Danny Kent, laughed Philipp Oettl. He has now collected fewer points than me. But that may be the case sometimes. I had nothing to lose, with the podium but I had not expected.

With 39 points and Phillipp Oettl now lies in 15th place of the overall standings behind champion Livio Loi.

Has it now Indy but managed in this way under your favorite tracks? Well, yeah. Of course i have it now positive memories.

Philipp Oettl ran into the pits to change tyres

Philipp Oettl after pointing with smiley

Almost 20 years after his father won his last race, Philipp Oettl secures his first Moto3 World Championship podium.

Throughout the year Philipp Oettl (Schedl GP Racing) has shown flashes of speed with frequent visits to the top five during practice. But, as in Indianapolis, there have usually been problems in Qualifying. For Sunday’s race Oettl started down in 34th, dead last, after a crash in the Qualifying. Just before the Moto3 riders lined up on the grid it began to rain, but by the time the lights went out the track was drying. Oettl with little to lose, dove into the pits to change his tyres to slicks at the first opportunity

While many other riders waited till their second or third lap to change, Oettl was already on track pushing. Livio Loi (RW Racing GP) had started on slicks and had already disappeared into the distance, but John McPhee (SAXOPRINT RTG) was within striking distance. Push as hard he may, the young German was unable to catch McPhee and instead settled for third, claiming his debut podium. This comes 19 years and two months after his father, Peter Oettl, claimed his last podium at Mugello in 1996.

Philipp Oettl left on wet tyres, I think it was the wrong decision and I ran into the pits to change tyres as quickly as possible. The team made a really amazing job today and I went straight back out and pushed every lap. To have a gap at the end was important because there were still spots of rain and I just said please don’t rain.