Rueda finishes seventh in Practice, while Carpe has to wait until the last second to secure 14th.

Friday was a successful first day for Jose Antonio Rueda and Alvaro Carpe at the Red Bull Ring -the scene of the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend. The Moto3 World Championship leader secured fifth place in the morning session and seventh in the afternoon, to earn a spot in Q2 on Saturday once again. Carpe was third in FP1, then in Practice made it into Q2 by just 0.009s.

The session that kicked off the second half of the season began at 9:00 a.m. at the Red Bull Ring. Conditions were favourable and sunny, with track temperatures already reaching 25°C at the start of the session.

Rueda immediately moved into the Top 10, and would remain there throughout the morning. Late on, like all his rivals, he looked for a Time Attack, and clocked a 1:40.744 which left him in fifth place. Carpe struggled a little more at the start of FP1, running off track at Turn 4, and was down in 22nd place until the final stretch of the session. From there, he was able to put together a strong run of laps, which put him closer to the top. His best time of 1:40.734 was 10 thousandths of a second faster than his teammate, and secured third place. He completed fourteen laps, two fewer than Rueda.

In the afternoon, track temperatures reached 42ºC and ambient temperatures 30ºC.

In Practice, both Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 riders focused on their race pace during the first stages. They headed into the pits with fifteen minutes remaining, to change tyres and prepare for a Time Attack. Rueda, moved into seventh with two minutes remaining, posted his best time of 1:40.534 -just 4 tenths off his best ever lap at the Red Bull Ring on a Moto3 bike. He was 6 tenths off the top spot, from the quickest of his 18 laps. Putting in 13 laps, Carpe had a tougher time making the cut. The top rookie in the class dropped to 14th in the final minute of the session, but was able to improve by a few tenths to slip into Q2 by 9 thousandths of a second. In 14th, Carpe posted a 1:41.041, just over a second off the pacesetter.

All in all, it was a positive Friday for Rueda and Carpe, who will need to take another step forward tomorrow if they want to fight for the top two rows of the grid. To prepare for Q2, both will compete in Free Practice 2 on Saturday starting at 8:40 a.m. (local time). After the second Free Practice session of the weekend, they will take part in Q2 from 1:10 p.m.

Practice Results
1. Angel Piqueras (KTM) | 1:39.918
2. Valentin Perrone (KTM) | 1:40.076 (+0.158)
3. Ryusei Yamanaka (KTM) | 1:40.238 (+0.320)
4. Maximo Quiles (KTM) | 1:40.341 (+0.423)
5. Dennis Foggia (KTM) | 1:40.438 (+0.520)
7. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:40.534 (+0.616)
14. Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:41.041 (+1.123)

#99 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“That’s the first day completed at KTM’s home. I’m happy with the work we did, although I know we can still be better, so tomorrow we’ll try other things to see if we can get it completely right. I need to be a little more comfortable on the bike, but we already know what needs to be changed after this first day, so we’re relaxed heading into the second day. We’ll try to do well in Q2 and be at the front for the race, which is important for a clean start and a good Sunday. We’re still feeling the same, which was important when we returned from holidays, so we’re focused on fine-tuning some details and going all-out tomorrow.”

#83 ALVARO CARPE

“It was mission accomplished today. We did a good job in the morning, but in the afternoon we needed a little more and had to battle to get into Q2. We’ll try to work harder to get where we want to be. We just need to get the setup right, so we’ll keep trying things out to be more comfortable and get as good a position as possible for Q2. If we want to enjoy ourselves like we did here in the Red Bull Rookies Cup races, we need to take a solid step forward on Saturday, so we’re focused on that now.”