Ayumu Sasaki has started as he means to go on by popping to the top of the timesheets in Friday’s second Moto3 Practice session at Circuit of The Americas.

The IntactGP Husqvarna rider was one of only a handful of riders to find significant gains during the afternoon session, which was hampered by irregular spots of rain at different parts of the circuit.

Nevertheless, Sasaki - who crashed out of the lead in the most recent Argentina Moto3 race - found a gap in the conditions to improve on his P1 lap time by almost 0.8s, leapfrogging him from third to first.

It was enough to give him a +0.1s advantage over second place man Jaume Masia, though the Leopard Racing rider appears to have pace in hand after being baulked on one of his faster laps.

Ivan Ortola followed up in third place, the Spaniard finding a full second between sessions to ascend from seventh to third.

Indeed, with the sketchy conditions spooking some riders, P1 pace setter Diogo Moreira was able to hold onto fourth despite failing to improve his time, the Brazilian leading Daniel Holgado in fifth and Kaito Toba, the Japanese rider making the biggest gains by jumping from 15th to sixth on the SIC58 Honda.

Deniz Oncu and Tatsuki Suzuki followed in seventh and eighth, with David Munoz - another big riser - and Romano Fenati completing the top ten.

Completing the 14 riders who will progress through to Q2 was Matteo Bertelle, Jose Antonio Rueda - who could be a doubt after a huge high-side necessitated a trip to the medical centre - Stefano Nepa and Riccardo Rossi.

Meanwhile, Scott Ogden - who scored a career-best fifth place in Argentina - appeared to get caught up with Xavier Artigas as they chased a fast time on their final laps, the skirmish benefiting neither with the former left 21st and the latter 18th. Joshua Whatley was 25th quickest.

Moto3 Results after P2 - Grand Prix of The Americas | COTA