Australia's Wayne Maxwell has taken a third row grid position for the Moto2 Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Australia’s Wayne Maxwell has qualified 11th for tomorrow’s Phillip Island round of the Moto2 World Championship on debut for the Italian-run Matteoni Racing team.

Maxwell impressed during the afternoon’s qualifying session to take the third row qualifying position for tomorrow’s 25-lap affair, his 1:36.146 lap time just 0.998 in arrears of pole position holder and ex-MotoGP competitor Alex de Angelis.

“We’ve come along way this weekend with the Matteoni team, so to end up only a second off the pace in my first Moto2 outing is a good result for qualifying,” Maxwell said. “We’re getting better with every session and I’m getting closer and closer to the front of the field.”

Heading into his grand prix debut tomorrow afternoon at the 4.445-kilometre Phillip Island Circuit, Maxwell is hopeful that the experience he has gained on the Moriwaki Moto2 machine during practice, which features a Honda 600cc control engine, will help him gain a top 10 result in the race.

“I’ll be happy with a top 10 result and we are getting close to that now since we had pretty good pace at the end of qualifying,” he continued. “Come race time I definitely think we should be there or thereabouts within the top 10.”

The Moto2 race will commence at 2:15pm on Sunday, 17 October, with Maxwell gaining the support of the home crowd to help urge him on to a good result as top Aussie in Moto2 so far this weekend.

Maxwell’s Moto2 endeavour is proudly supported by Honda Australia, Milspec, Construct Concrete Services, ASF Printing, Longlife Roofing and Caprice.