The Dutchman goes straight into the Pole Position fight for the seventh consecutive round, whilst Jose Antonio Rueda needs to go through Q1 after being 22nd.

Collin Veijer continued his perfect run of seven direct spots in Q2 this season, earning a place in the session at the Italian Grand Prix with 11th best laptime in Practice. Jose Antonio Rueda, following a similar strategy to his teammate, also made a significant improvement in the afternoon session, but had to settle for 22nd position and will have to go through Q1 tomorrow.

After overnight rain at Mugello, the intermediate class went out for Free Practice 1 on a slightly damp surface, with track temperatures of 21°C and 85% humidity.

Veijer rode a cautious session, without pushing too hard, knowing that the weather was expected to improve throughout the day. The Dutchman completed 12 laps, although several of them were at the end of the session and used to practice his start. With the sole objective of accumulating kilometres on the Italian track, he finished 24th with a best time of 2:04.647. Rueda used the same conservative approach, riding eight laps of the Italian track in the morning to get a feel for the circuit. He finished 26th with a 2:07.606 in FP1.

A radical change in conditions occurred in the afternoon, with the sun shining brightly at Mugello and the track drying out completely, reaching 36°C with 55% humidity. Practice saw the Circuit Record broken, due to the high pace.

Veijer made an immediate improvement to his morning pace, then steadily climbed the order to reach 8th before the end of his first run. When he came back out for a second stint, he headed into the final part of the practice session with the intention of setting a scorching one-off lap. With many rivals also improving, he initially dropped out of the Top 14, but with another strong lap he finished 11th, securing his seventh consecutive Q2 appearance in 2026. His best time was a 1:50.233, 8 tenths faster than his quickest lap at last year’s Grand Prix. Rueda completed a total of 17 laps in the session, but had a slightly more difficult start, struggling to adapt to the demanding Italian circuit on a Moto2 bike. He remained near the back of the field during the first part of the session, but was always within 2 seconds of the fastest rider. However, in the closing stages, he made a surge, finishing 22nd and just 4 tenths of a second shy of making the cut for Q2, with a time of 1:50.912. Rueda will try to secure his second consecutive in Q2 via Q1 on Saturday.

In conclusion, it was a day of learning for the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team, which managed to secure a direct place in Q2 once again. Free Practice 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 9:25 a.m. (local time), whilst Qualifying will begin at 1:40 p.m. with Q1, in which Rueda will participate. Veijer goes straight into Q2, at 2:05 p.m.

Practice Results
1. Celestino Vietti (Boscoscuro) | 1:49.420
2. Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) | 1:49.431 (+0.011)
3. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) | 1:49.530 (+0.110)
4. Filip Salac (Kalex) | 1:49.584 (+0.164)
5. Alonso Lopez (Kalex) | 1:49.758 (+0.338)
11. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:50.233 (+0.813)
22. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:50.912 (+1.492)

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“I’m happy with today, but we still need to do a lot of things to improve. We didn’t have too many laps in the morning, so it was almost straight into Practice. We managed to solve different problems we suffered at the start, but we need to improve more tomorrow, for sure. The feeling overall is quite good, but we need to work on some small things that would give us a better feeling on track. Fortunately, we have two more days of work here, so we’ll try to take another step forward tomorrow morning -and also in Qualifying.”

#98 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“Today was a bit different, mainly due to the changing track conditions. We couldn’t draw many conclusions in the first session because of the surface, so we had to learn a lot in a short amount of time this afternoon. The way you ride a Moto2 bike is very different here at Mugello, so we’ll have to keep putting in kilometres tomorrow to adapt more and more. Without a doubt, we learned a lot today; we gave it our all, and I’m sure we’ll take another step forward tomorrow.”