Daniel Muñoz places 12th and Collin Veijer 14th in a late surge in Practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo riders made it four consecutive straight entries into Q2 thanks to a successful Friday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, as Daniel Muñoz earned twelfth and Collin Veijer fourteenth in Practice at Sepang.

After morning rain, the surface had dried out for Moto2 FP1, with track temperatures of 28°C and typically high humidity of 78%.

Focused on working on his race pace, Veijer started the session on his own, completing a solo run with Sunday in mind. The Dutchman was low down the standings initially, and prioritised his work with used tyres, leaving his attempt at a fast time until the final stretch. On one of his first laps back out after a trip to the pits, he took 1.2 seconds off his previous best time, then shaved further tenths off to clock a 2:05.375, which left him just over 1 second off the top spot. He put in 15 laps and was 18th. Muñoz finished three positions further back, in 21st, and took almost the opposite approach to his teammate. Using fresh tyres from the start, he made it into the Top 5 after a strong start at an unfamiliar circuit. However, the Spaniard spent the second part of the session working on his pace with used tyres, which didn’t allow him to further improve his best time. He was 1:4 seconds off the pacesetter, with a 2:05.525 the quickest of his 16 laps.

The sun appeared tentatively throughout a dry afternoon Practice, providing 33°C track temperatures and 77% humidity.

As in FP1, Muñoz prioritised his early laps with fresh tyres in Practice, as a security measure in case it started to rain after the session had already begun. However, a minor crash at Turn 4 slightly limited his participation, and he only rejoined the action when 10 minutes remained. Despite completing several flying laps in this final stretch of the session, he didn’t improve his time further, but a 2:04.719 set on his third flying lap was enough to get him into Q2 with the 12th best time. Veijer was cautious to begin with, continuing the work he had begun in FP1. Focused on continuing to establish a good setup for the rest of the weekend, the Dutchman improved with each lap, placing himself in the Q2 positions for the first time with 20 minutes left. During his Time Attack, Veijer achieved his best lap, with a 2:04.766 just 0.047s slower than his teammate. He closed out the Top 14, 0.005s ahead of the rider behind him.

This is the fourth time in the four overseas races that the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 duo has managed to qualify directly for Q2 from Friday’s Practice session. Tomorrow, both riders will face the key part of the weekend: securing a good position on the grid, which is no easy task given the parity of the intermediate category. Q2 for the Red Bull KTM Ajo pair at the Malaysian Grand Prix takes place on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. (local time). Before that, the duo will ride in FP2 from 9:25 a.m.

Practice Results
1. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) | 2:04.166
2. Jake Dixon (Boscoscuro) | 2:04.218 (+0.052)
3. Albert Arenas (Kalex) | 2:04.282 (+0.116)
4. Barry Baltus (Kalex) | 2:04.293 (+0.127)
5. Daniel Holgado (Kalex) | 2:04.320 (+0.154)
12. Daniel Muñoz (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 2:04.719 (+0.553)
14. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 2:04.766 (+0.600)

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“This morning the conditions were kind of ‘half-and-half’, so it wasn’t too easy for our first time here with the Moto2 bike. It’s a difficult track. I know it well, but it’s completely different in the intermediate class, so we tried to learn as much as possible this morning. The second session was a little bit tougher for us. We worked with the used tyres first, and then we tried to push and we felt comfortable enough to set a good lap time. Finally, we managed to go through to Q2, so I’m happy about that. Tomorrow we will try our best to be a little bit more competitive, and in the race especially so.”

#17 DANIEL MUÑOZ

“I’m very happy with today. This is a new circuit for me, and I really liked it. We’re satisfied with the work we did, despite suffering a small crash in the afternoon. We made it through to Q2 for the fourth consecutive time, so tomorrow we’ll try to take another step forward and improve even further compared to this first day. It’s important that we have a good Q2, but it won’t be easy, so we’ll have to fight hard to get a good grid position.”