Bendsneyder and Odendaal see opportunities for the Red Bull Ring

It was not an easy qualification in Austria for Bo Bendsneyder and Steven Odendaal. The riders of NTS RW Racing GP start the Moto2 race on Sunday from 23rd and 28th place respectively. Yet they both see opportunities for points on the challenging Red Bull Ring.

The goal was to reach Q2, but it just didn’t work. Bendsneyder finished ninth in Q1, Odendaal became fourteenth. Even today the differences were very small. For example, in FP3 26 riders were in the same second. It wasn’t much different in qualifying. Bendsneyder’s 1.29.632, which earned him 23rd place, was 0.9 away from the time with which Tetsuta Nagashima grabbed his first pole position. On the eighth row the Dutchman is joined by Jonas Folger and Sam Lowes – not the least either.

Bo Bendsneyder: “It is a shame that we could move on to Q2. Unfortunately we just couldn’t make the improvement as the others did. In terms of setup I have a good feeling and I also think that I have a constant, good pace over a race distance. The goal is and remains to grab points and I do see opportunities for that. It looks like there’s a chance of rain tomorrow morning. Here in the mountains we just have to wait and see what the weather does.”

Steven Odendaal: “We were able to make a good step in FP3 this morning, enabling us to get to 0.9 from the top. That is very positive. We did not take the risk to change much for the qualifying, but tomorrow morning in the warm-up we might want to try something. The pace is okay; better than in the past races. I am confident that I can fight for the points tomorrow.”