Twelfth place for Öncü, as Veijer finishes his first race inside the Top 20.

The opening Grand Prix of the season was completed by both Red Bull KTM Ajo riders on Sunday, with Deniz Öncü scoring his first points of the year after overcoming a bad start. Collin Veijer finished his first race in the intermediate class in 20th place. In addition, both were competitive at the end of the race with good lap times under very difficult and demanding track conditions.

Amidst the hot temperatures that had been present throughout the weekend, the Moto2 contest had a frantic start. Öncü was caught up in the bottleneck off the line, which meant he dropped several positions from 12th on the grid.

As the laps went by, he steadied himself in the Top 20 and began to show a consistent pace that allowed him to climb up the order. He returned to his starting position and was one of the five fastest riders on the closing laps, but was never able to close the gap to the Top 10, taking the chequered flag 12th and earning his first points of 2025.

Veijer was cautious at the start and stuck in the group with his teammate. He managed to progress up the field to slot into 20th position, overcoming some more experienced riders and also fighting with the other newcomers to the class. By the end, he was setting times similar to those of Öncü. Finally, he crossed the line in 20th, less than four seconds off the Top 15 and the points.

Red Bull KTM Ajo will try to continue their progress in a fortnight at the Argentinian Grand Prix at Termas de Río Hondo, from March 14-16th.

Race Results
1. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) 35:13.072
2. Aron Canet (Kalex) +.2.600
3. Senna Agius (Kalex) +6.491
4. Diogo Moreira (Kalex) +6.742
5. Marcos Ramirez (Kalex) +9.561
12. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +18.820
20. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +24.309

Moto2 World Championship Standings
1. Manuel González (Kalex) 25 points
2. Aron Canet (Kalex) 20 points
3. Senna Agius (Kalex) 16 points
4. Diogo Moreira (Kalex) 13 points
5. Marcos Ramirez (Kalex) 11 points
12. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 4 points
20. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 0 points

Moto2 Teams World Championship Standings
1. Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP – 41 points
2. Fantic Racing LINO SONEGO – 30 points
3. ELF Marc VDS Racing Team – 16 points
4. Italtrans Racing Team – 15 points
5. OnlyFans American Racing Team – 11 points
9. Red Bull KTM Ajo – 4 points

NIKLAS AJO – Team Manager

“We had a positive weekend overall in Moto2. Today’s results were not that successful, but it wasn’t a bad first Grand Prix. With Deniz, he worked very well during all the weekend in terms of his race pace and Time Attack, but the Qualifying in hot conditions didn’t work out for him. In the middle of the pack, as everyone knows, there’s a lot of action during the race, and he was very unfortunate during the first laps. After that, he set a good pace and he overtook a lot of riders, so he demonstrated that he has a good base to work from. Collin had a very positive weekend for a rookie. He was fighting with all the other new Moto2 riders, and considering his starting position, he achieved a good result today. We hope he can continue the same process during the next few races.”

#53 DENIZ ÖNCÜ

“The first race was a really hard one. I was clipped by another rider at Turn 5 during the first lap and I lost a lot of positions. Fortunately, we avoided a crash and could continue. It wasn’t easy to overtake riders with full tanks, so I had to wait a little bit. In the second part of the race, others started to struggle and I could start my comeback. I’m not really happy about the result, but it’s something that can happen when you don’t have a good Qualifying. For sure, we will be better in Argentina.”

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“We have improved a bit more again, so I’m happy. We had a consistent race and we nailed the times on most of the laps, which was one of the objectives for today. We preferred to be patient and not push from the start, in order to preserve the tyres, and it worked well for us. Maybe we were too conservative, as we needed a few laps to recover some more positions, but in general it was a good race. Being in the Top 20 is good news, as it hasn’t been an easy weekend, so we close the first Grand Prix with positive feelings and now we will think about Argentina.”