The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider successfully completed the first two free practice sessions of the Italian Grand Prix.

On the opening day of the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 and Can Öncü completed two solid free practice sessions. Working in hot temperatures, the young Turkish rider improved his feeling lap by lap, building on the good work carried out in testing in Barcelona last week.

With the sun shining brightly from early on in the morning, Can Öncü had a strong start, staying in the top 15 for much of FP1 and steadily reducing his times. On lap 15 of 16, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rookie set a personal best of 1:58.860, concluding the session sixth on the timesheets.

In FP2, with the track temperature reaching 46ºC, Can Öncü was up in 12th place in the second half of the session. However, traffic on track prevented the young Turk from maximizing his potential in the final part of the session and finally the Red Bull KTM Ajo youngster was 24th, with a time of 1:58.926.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 team have one last free practice tomorrow morning. The grid for the Italian Grand Prix will be decided in Q1 and Q2, at 12:35 pm and 1:00 pm respectively.

Results (Combined practice times FP1 – FP2)
1. Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda) 1:57:467
2. Kevin Zannoni (TM) 1:57:506 +0.039
3. Tony Arbolino (Honda) 1:57:514 +0.047
4. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) 1:57:540 +0.073
5. John McPhee (Honda) 1:57:648 +0.181
24. Can Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:58:860 +1.393

61 CAN ÖNCÜ

“I’m happy with how the day went in general. The first two free practice sessions worked out well, but we needed to improve at the end. This is because we were fast at the start and then later on things got harder for us. I also had slow down quite a bit because there was a lot of traffic. Still we stay positive, we hope to continue working like this tomorrow and to be well prepared for the race.”