The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider takes 6th place, whilst Tetsuta Nagashima qualifies on Row 7 at Brno.

The Moto2 Czech Grand Prix starting grid was decided on Saturday afternoon at Brno, and the Red Bull KTM Ajo team experienced mixed fortunes. Jorge Martin went directly into Q2, thanks to a solid performance in FP3, and tomorrow the Spaniard will start the race from 6th position. Meanwhile, Tetsuta Nagashima qualified on the seventh row of the grid, in 21st, after failing to make it out of Q1.

In the final Free Practice session the pair were able to lower their times from Friday. Jorge Martin earned himself a slot in Q2 after concluding the practice in 12th place, with a personal best of 2:02.374, and put in 15 laps in total. Tetsuta Nagashima finished FP3 in 16th position, stopping the clock at 2:02.501. The Japanese rider also completed 15 laps of the Czech track, in which he was very consistent.

A few hours later, Jorge Martin was back out for Q2. One of the frontrunners on the timesheets, he was just 1 tenth off a front row start, putting in a 2:02.289 lap. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider will be sixth on the Czech GP grid. Tetsuta Nagashima had to enter into Q1, and a seventh place finish through a 2:02.414 time was not enough to make it into Q2. The Japanese will take off from 21st.

The 19-lap Moto2 Czech Grand Prix gets underway tomorrow at 12:20 pm local time.

Results (Qualifying sessions)
1. Joe Roberts (Kalex) 2:01:692
2. Sam Lowes (Kalex) 2:01.822 +0.130
3. Enea Bastianini (Kalex) 2:01.881 +0.189
4. Hafizh Syahrin (Speed Up) 2:02.145 +0.453
5. Marco Bezzecchi (Kalex) 2:02.178 +0.486
6. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:02.289 +0.597
21. Tetsuta Nagashima (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:02.414 (Q1 time)

88 JORGE MARTIN

“It’s been a bit of a strange weekend so far. However, in the Free Practice in the morning we found an improvement with the front end that helped me a lot. In the afternoon, in qualifying, we made further progress.
Yesterday we were 18th and today we earned 6th position on the grid; I’m happy as it is a good spot. We will try to take a further step forward in the warm-up so that in the race we can get into the fight for the Top 5.”

45 TETSUTA NAGASHIMA

“It was a tough day as we didn’t find a good setup and I didn’t have feeling either, due to the bumps on the track. Yesterday I tried to push and I crashed as a result, and that made things different today. The positive point is that we have a great pace for the race. Tomorrow we will have to work very hard and make a strong fight back. Now we will analyse all the data in search of being able to take another step forward.”