The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider and his teammate, Jaume Masia, complete the first two Free Practice sessions for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in wet conditions.

The opening day of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was a wet one at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, and the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 duo completed the first two runs of the weekend in tough conditions. Pedro Acosta led the field in FP2, and on Friday’s combined timesheets he was second – just 0.007 off the fastest lap of the day. Jaume Masia approached the sessions calmly and cautiously, and finished 17th overall.

The first Free Practice of the weekend was held in wet conditions, after rainfall early in the morning. Despite the tricky state of the surface, Masia achieved the 11th best time, stopping the clock at 1:54.049 on his last attempt out of a total of 15. More difficulties were experienced by Acosta, who suffered a small crash at Turn 6, 16 minutes in. The Spaniard remounted to conclude the session and was 15th with a 1:54.277.

The rain continued throughout the afternoon, and thus the second Free Practice of the day was also held in wet conditions. Acosta managed to make a big step forward and topped FP2 with a time of 1:52.536, leading the way almost 8 tenths quicker than his closest rival. The Spaniard completed a total of 17 laps of the San Marino track. Over 16 laps, Masia finished in 18th position with a 1:54.252.

Tomorrow morning, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 duo will compete in FP3, the last chance to prepare their bikes for the fight for the pole position. Q1 will start at 12:35 PM local time, followed by Q2 at 1 PM.

Results (Combined practice times FP1-FP2)
1. Andrea Migno (Honda) 1:52.529
2. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:52.536 +0.007
3. Alberto Surra (Honda) 1:52.807 +0.278
4. Ayumu Sasaki (KTM) 1:53.349 +0.820
5. Filip Salac (KTM) 1:53.362 +0.833
17. Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:54.049 +1.520

5 JAUME MASIA

“It was a wet day, so the important thing is that we managed to finish the two sessions without any crashes. However, I hope that tomorrow we can ride in the dry and without such cold temperatures. I am looking forward to seeing how far we can go in the fight for the pole position and, regardless of the weather conditions, we will do our best to get a good position on the grid.”

37 PEDRO ACOSTA

“The day went quite well. The objective was to provisionally qualify for Q2, and we succeeded. Today it was important to test our feeling and find out where the limit was in case it rains tomorrow. In the FP2, we were able to try out all the things that we had pending from the FP1. Overall, I am happy with the work we did on Friday.”