British Talent Team rider John McPhee had a solid morning session on Saturday at a sunny Spanish GP, before a more difficult qualifying set the Scotsman up for a comeback from further back on the grid.
With great pace on Friday, a top ten in FP3 and impressive showings first time out with the team at Jerez in preseason, McPhee has the pace to move through on race day as he starts P26, with damage limitation the name of the game after cutting the Championship gap in Texas.
The lights go out in Moto3™ at 11:00 (GMT +2) for the race, with Warm Up beforehand another chance for final adjustments ahead of the charge.
John McPhee, P26: "Today was frustrating qualifying for me as my potential was so much better than I was able to show. We had some simple but unavoidable issues that stopped me being able to do a laptime, and that's the reason I'm so far down the grid. I'm confident that tomorrow I'll be able to show my true pace and have a good comeback to a strong race."