The Moto3 rider finishes the first day at MotorLand in second position, with Xabi Zurutuza 22nd.

The Aragon Grand Prix got underway this Friday, returning after a year’s absence from the calendar. The Red Bull KTM Ajo riders faced a newly asphalted track, and used the day to adapt to the track. Jose Antonio Rueda fought for first position and was eventually second fastest, whilst Xabi Zurutuza was 22nd.

Moto3 Free Practice took place in somewhat delicate track conditions, due to the lack of grip on relaid surface. Rueda was one of the strongest riders, leading the way from the start and taking advantage of the work carried out in the test at MotorLand a few weeks ago to establish his setup. Aware that tyre management will be one of the keys to the weekend,  he still pushed and was close to the top spot after achieving a time of 1:59.739, just +0.056 behind the session leader. Zurutuza started Friday in an unexpected way; despite it being one of the circuits he knows best, the conditions made things tricky for the Spaniard. Despite this, the rookie tried to get comfortable in order to lower his times and climb positions. After a pit stop, Zurutuza continued to improve, taking fifteenth place with a 2:01.398.

In the afternoon session, the increase in temperatures made tyre management difficult. Rueda was once again one of the leading riders in Practice 1, and remained in the Top 3 overall, improving his times by more than two seconds and moving closer to an ideal set-up for both qualifying and the race. A 1:57.262 on his final lap of 16 placed him in second. Zurutuza also lowered his times in the afternoon outing and tried to put together a good lap to stay among the Top 14. However, he struggled to string together a clean lap, meaning that, whilst he worked on his pace and made a big step forward in that regard, after 11 laps he was 20th thanks to his 1:59.309.

Moto3 qualifying will take place on Saturday from 12:50 pm local time.

Results Practice 1
1. David Alonso (CFMOTO) 1:57.052
2. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:57.262 +0.210
3. David Almansa (Honda) 1:57.616 +0.564
4. Collin Veijer (Husqvarna) 1:57.842 +0.790
5. David Muñoz (KTM) 1:57.918 +0.866
22. Xabi Zurutuza (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:59.309 +2.257

#99 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“This result shows that the test we did went well. The track conditions this morning were difficult, but in the afternoon they improved a lot. I was able to get a good pace, so I’m very happy in that sense. We’re all very close together, so we’ll have to find a gap tomorrow in qualifying to set a good lap on our own. It’s still a bit early to decide anything, but we’ll probably have to take care of the tyres in the race.”

#85 XABI ZURUTUZA

“The sessions were quite strange today, as the track conditions were difficult. In the morning I was slipping around a lot. We were able to see that tyre wear will be very important. In Practice 1 we weren’t able to run the strategy we wanted, which was to do a lot of laps and get a good feeling with the bike. We lacked a good, fast lap, but the goal is to keep learning to get a solid pace and go straight into Q2 tomorrow.”