Pedro Acosta and Jaume Masia undertake two fruitful Free Practice sessions on the opening day of the Catalan Grand Prix.

A sunny day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya greeted the Moto3 riders for the first day of the Catalan Grand Prix, the seventh round of the 2021 season. Red Bull KTM Ajo participated in the initial two Free Practice sessions of the weekend, in which Pedro Acosta made steady progress and finished 13th on the timesheets and Jaume Masia was 17th overall.

At the start of FP1, ambient temperatures were already up to over 20ºC. Amidst the heat, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 duo rode their first laps, gathering valuable information to begin work on setting up their bikes. Masia finished eighth in the session with a time of 1:49.243, on his penultimate lap of 16. On the other side of the box, Acosta was 20th, after stopping the clock at 1:50.069 and completing 15 laps.

In the afternoon, both riders continued preparing their respective machines. Acosta was able to improve his times from FP1 to FP2, also achieving a better feeling with his KTM. The rookie finished the session 13th, setting a 1:48.767. The pair rode a total of 16 laps apiece, and Masia took 16th with a 1:49.458 time.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 duo will have a final Free Practice on Saturday before qualifying. Q1 for the Catalan GP will start at 12:35 PM, followed by Q2 at 1 PM.

Results (Combined practice times FP1-FP2)
1. Gabriel Rodrigo (Honda) 1:47.950
2. Darryn Binder (Honda) 1:48.028 +0.078
3. Romano Fenati (Husqvarna) 1:48.208 +0.258
4. Izan Guevara (GasGas) 1:48.408 +0.458
5. Ayumu Sasaki (KTM) 1:48.442 +0.492
13. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:48.767 +0.817
17. Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:49.243 +1.293

5 JAUME MASIA

“It was a difficult day for us, as it was hard for us to understand how to manage the tyres well. However, we are already working on this to take a step forward for Sunday’s race. Our efforts are also focused on finding a little more speed. For tomorrow, the goal we are trying to set for ourselves is to get onto one of the front two rows. In Moto3 it is much safer to be as high up the grid as possible. Although the most important thing is to find a good setup for Sunday.”

37 PEDRO ACOSTA

“The FP1 was a little hard for us, but in FP2 we found the feeling that we had at the test a few weeks ago here. We were at the front all day and we were competitive, which is the important thing. We will continue working, because I believe that we are taking things in the right direction, and we will see what tomorrow is like. My goal will be to go directly into Q2, since in Qatar and at Portimao we did very well and we’ve struggled more at recent races.”