Sandro Cortese turned the tables on his teammate Danny Kent as the Red Bull KTM Ajo squad dominated Friday Practice ahead of the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The British youngster was quickest in the morning but was forced to play second fiddle to Cortese in the afternoon as the championship leader showed his class.
The track rubbered in throughout the day and Kent’s morning benchmark of a 1:53.645 was quickly beaten by Cortese. The championship leader was some three seconds quicker than his teammate had been but Maverick Vinales sent a message to his title rival with a 1:49.950, taking the lead eight minutes from time.
The session soon started to reflect the season so far as Cortese and Vinales traded top spot with less than a tenth of a second separating them but as the chequered flag fell, the German assured he would head into Saturday as the fastest man with a 1:49.307, opening up a near-four-tenth advantage over his rival.
Cortese was leading a lengthy pack of riders on the circuit and Miguel Oliveira managed to lock himself into the slipstream of the KTM to snatch second from Vinales but elsewhere on the race track, Danny Kent had also managed to find a tow and jumped back into second. Vinales was relegated to fourth while Luis Salom and Alex Rins left it late to claim the remaining spots in the top six.
The two Mapfre Aspar Kalex-KTMs were seventh and eighth but the personnel have changed slightly. Alberto Moncayo has been given his marching orders since Mugello, opening the door for Jonas Folger who has vacated the uncompetitive Ioda bike. Folger was 0.012s ahead of Hector Faubel in the inter-team tussle while Moncayo, who has found reemployment with Andalucía JHK Laglisse, ended the day in sixteenth.
Danny Webb had a strong day on the Mahindra, placing it in the top sixteen for much of the afternoon but the Briton was eventually shuffled back to 22nd, two and a half seconds off the pace.
Moto3 Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix: Combined Friday Practice Classification
| Pos | Rider | Motorcycle | Team | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sandro Cortese |
KTM | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 1:49.307 |
| 2 |  Danny Kent |
KTM | Red Bull KTM Ajo | +0.126 |
| 3 |  Miguel Oliveira |
Suter Honda | Estrella Galicia 0,0 | +0.289 |
| 4 |  Maverick Vinales |
FTR Honda | Blusens Avintia | +0.387 |
| 5 | Luis Salom |
Kalex KTM | RW Racing GP | +0.520 |
| 6 | Alex Rins |
Suter Honda | Estrella Galicia 0,0 | +0.679 |
| 7 | Jonas Folger |
Kalex KTM | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 | +1.049 |
| 8 | Hector Faubel |
Kalex KTM | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 | +1.061 |
| 9 |  Louis Rossi |
FTR Honda | Racing Team Germany | +1.121 |
| 10 | Adrian Martin |
FTR Honda | JHK Laglisse | +1.596 |
| 11 |  Jakub Kornfeil |
FTR Honda | Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta | +1.611 |
| 12 | Efren Vazquez |
FTR Honda | JHK Laglisse | +1.654 |
| 13 |  Zulfahmi Khairuddin |
KTM | AirAsia-Sic-Ajo | +1.704 |
| 14 |  Romano Fenati |
FTR Honda | Team Italia FMI | +1.765 |
| 15 | Isaac Vinales |
FTR Honda | Ongetta-Centro Seta | +1.931 |
| 16 | Alberto Moncayo |
FTR Honda | Andalucía JHK Laglisse | +1.990 |
| 17 | Alex Marquez |
Suter Honda | Ambrogio Next Racing | +1.999 |
| 18 |  Brad Binder |
Kalex KTM | RW Racing GP | +2.172 |
| 19 | Niccolo Antonelli |
FTR Honda | San Carlo Gresini Moto3 | +2.417 |
| 20 | Alan Techer |
TSR Honda | Technomag-CIP-TSR | +2.443 |
| 21 |  Jack Miller |
Honda | Caretta Technology | +2.459 |
| 22 | Danny Webb |
Mahindra | Mahindra Racing | +2.531 |
| 23 |  Jasper Iwema |
FGR Honda | Moto FGR | +2.643 |
| 24 | Alessandro Tonucci |
FTR Honda | Team Italia FMI | +2.733 |
| 25 | Alexis Masbou |
Honda | Caretta Technology | +2.953 |
| 26 | Luigi Morciano |
Ioda | Ioda Team Italia | +3.139 |
| 27 |  Niklas Ajo |
KTM | TT Motion Events Racing | +3.501 |
| 28 | Toni Finsterbusch |
Honda | Cresto Guide MZ Racing | +3.543 |
| 29 | Arthur Sissis |
KTM | Red Bull KTM Ajo | +3.841 |
| 30 | Armando Pontone |
Ioda | IodaRacing Project | +4.148 |
| 31 |  Giulian Pedone |
Suter Honda | Ambrogio Next Racing | +4.620 |
| 32 | Riccardo Moretti |
Mahindra | Mahindra Racing | +4.817 |
| 33 |  Kenta Fujii |
TSR Honda | Technomag-CIP-TSR | +4.854 |
