The Red Bull Grand Prix of Americas is GO in Texas as Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez enjoyed their first day of American rodeo at the Circuit of the Americas. Rookie star Acosta completed a perfect first day in the States as he claimed P5 of Practice, bearing in mind that it was his first time on a MotoGP™ bike across the pond. Augusto Fernandez felt more competitive on Friday, missing out on a direct Q2 ticket by just 0.195 seconds.

Rookie sensation Pedro Acosta took his first ‘steps’ in MotoGP™ on Friday in COTA, and what a start that was! In the morning's Free Practice 1, the young Shark, third youngest podium finisher in the MotoGP™ history, claimed P3 with an excellent 2’03.606, just 0.312 seconds from Maverick Vinales who topped the opening session of the weekend. And that was just FP1! As he continued the learning in the afternoon’s Practice, things started to go crazy in the final minutes with all riders fitting the soft tyres for the first time attacks of the weekend. Acosta eventually jumped to fifth in the final seconds with a 2'01.966, just 0.569 seconds from Jorge Martin. That’s another direct Q2 ticket for the shark who will dispute his third Q2 tomorrow morning, before he takes on the challenging COTA in the afternoon Sprint.

It was the best Friday of the season so far for Augusto Fernandez who was able to close a bit more the gap with his rivals on the opening day of the Americas Grand Prix. The Spaniard was happy about his bike today, and with his confidence getting back ‘poco a poco’, he was able to challenge the rest of the grid for the direct Q2 tickets in the afternoon’s Practice. He was provisionally in the top 10 at some point, but the late time attacks pushed him away from it. His fastest lap in 2’02.553 meant that he finished the day in fifteenth, only missing out on the top 10 by 0.195 seconds. The competition will be tough in the pre-qualifying session in the morning, but the number 37 will give his best to try to make it to the first four rows, when qualifying starts at 10:50 local time (GMT-5), on Saturday.