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By Lisa Lewis

Estrella Galicia KTM’s Alex Rins qualified on Moto3 pole in Texas after leading much of Saturday afternoon session around the Circuit of the Americas, chipping away at his time throughout for a second career pole.

Rins, who went into qualifying fastest after three practice sessions, was almost half a second clear of his nearest rival Luis Salom at the flag – but at one point led the session by almost two seconds.

Red Bull KTM’s title leader Salom leapt into second with a hot lap which beat his own personal best by a second.

It is an all Spanish, all KTM front row after the riders who took the podium positions in Qatar made the Texas qualifying top three.

Team Calvo’s Maverick Vinales took third ahead of Caretta Technology’s Jack Miller who was the highest qualifying Honda rider in fourth.

He is joined on the second row by Jonas Folger who was down in 15th until his final lap propelled his Mapfre Aspar Kalex KTM to fifth on the grid.

Rins rookie team-mate Alex Marquez continued his strong start to his first full season and starts from sixth.

Also making the top ten were Niklas Ajo for Avant Tecno in seventh and Ambrogio Racing’s Danny Webb whose last lap pushed his Suter Honda to eighth.

Alexis Masbou starts ninth for Ongetta-Rivacold and after spending much of the session in the pits fixing rear suspension issues Red Bull KTM Ajo team’s Arthur Sissis managed the tenth fastest time.

Mahindra saw the end of their run of strong results with Efren Vazquez down in 15th and Miguel Oliveira starting from 18th.Vazquez also suffered a crash in the closing moments with Sissis.

Zulfahmi Khairuddin continued to struggle to find his feet since his promotion to the full Red Bull factory team and starts twelfth.

Fenati also failed to match up to his superb start to the 2012 season and starts 17th for the San Carlo Team Italia outfit.

John McPhee is playing catch up after his Qatar crash with Alexis Masbou wrecked his Caretta Technology – RTG bike beyond salvation and placed 28th on the grid.

Hyuga Watanabe walked away unharmed from a horror crash in the final minutes where Toni Finsterbusch’s Kiefer bike appeared to clip his brakes sending the Japanese rider over his handlebars.

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