The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will be the first round of three for Jose Antonio Rueda and Xabi Zurutuza.

Red Bull KTM Ajo will be back at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli this weekend. After a week off, Jose Antonio Rueda and Xabi Zurutuza are ready for the final stretch of the season, which will begin with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. After a first Sunday to forget in San Marino, the riders are raring to get back on track quickly.

Rueda had a good start to the San Marino Grand Prix. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider had a good feeling during the weekend, although he missed out on the front row of the grid in qualifying. When targeting a fightback to compete for the podium, a collision with another rider at Turn 2 of the opening lap left him out of contention. Rueda recently achieved his first victory in the class. With 99 points, he remains in sixth position in the standings.

Zurutuza had a difficult race at the San Marino GP, and the Moto3 rookie wants to take advantage of the opportunity provided by a short turnaround to continue working and fine-tuning his setup. Zurutuza is already working to continue gaining points and experience in the series. With 11 points to his name, he is 22nd in the Moto3 standings.

Red Bull KTM Ajo are seventh in the Teams standings with 113 points. In previous years the team have achieved great results at Misano, with Deniz Öncü finishing third in 2022 and Jaume Masia second in 2021. In 2021, Jaume Masia and Pedro Acosta were second and third, respectively. This weekend’s Moto3 race will take place on Sunday at 10am local time.
 

Circuit information – Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
Length: 4.2km / 2.626 miles
Width: 12m / 39.37 ft.
Left corners: 6
Right corners: 10
Longest straight: 0.5km / 0.329 miles
Built: 1969

#99 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“We’re coming into another race weekend at Misano, a circuit that’s quite fresh in the mind for us. This weekend we have to work to fine-tune everything. I think we did well at the last Grand Prix, although we didn’t last long in the race. We weren’t able to show what we could do in the race, something we’d been working on all weekend. I’m really looking forward to another race at Misano and continuing the good work and pace, to be able to fight for the top positions in the race.”

#85 XABI ZURUTUZA

“I’m going into the race weekend at Misano really looking forward to seeing the team and getting to work. This is the second Grand Prix at the same circuit, so we’ve already done more kilometres, more hours and got more data. We’ll keep working, gaining experience and moving up positions. I’m really looking forward to getting there and seeing myself in the front positions, where we deserve to be.”