DANNY KENT overcame some poor qualifying sessions to earn valuable championship points at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas in Austin, Texas, writes Alannah Fellows.

Kent, 19, and John McPhee had a tremendous tussle in theMoto3 race with the Malmesbury youngster just holding on for eighth place from the Scotsman.

Kent only found a satisfactory set-up in Sunday's 20-minute warm-up session after qualifying in 16th place on the grid.

He worked his way through the field into 11th by the 10th of 18 laps. Continuing his fast pace on his Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo machine, he was up into the top 10 by the second half of the race.

Kent crossed the line in a solid eighth position, 23 seconds behind race winner, Australian Jack Miller.

“In the end the weekend did not conclude too badly," said Danny.

"With all the problems we had, I did not have a good feeling and we started from 16th due to a poor qualifying session.

"However, this morning in the warm-up we changed some things on the bike that allowed me to immediately feel more comfortable. We improved 0.6 seconds this morning compared with qualifying.

"If we had run this pace in the first free practice session, we would have been stronger today. "Now we have to work hard with our focus on Argentina, taking things step by step.”

The third round of the world championship takes place at the new circuit Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo in Argentina on April 27.