The Dutchman finishes ninth on a strong Friday in Barcelona, ​​while Rueda misses out on his first Q2 by just 7 thousandths of a second.

Collin Veijer enjoyed another consistent start to a weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, earning ninth place in the Practice session for the Catalan Grand Prix. Meanwhile, teammate Jose Antonio Rueda had his best Friday of the season to date, finishing 11th in the morning and 15th in the afternoon, only 0.007 away from the Top 14 positions.

Under cloudy skies at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the Moto2 riders took to the track for the first time at the CatalanGP amidst temperatures barely reaching 15°C and 60% humidity.

Veijer made a positive start and steadily improved his position on his initial laps, quickly moving into the Top 10. He finished his first stint in sixth place, just ahead of his teammate. The Dutchman made two pit stops to divide the session into three parts, testing out different settings, but couldn’t up his pace on the final laps, leaving him with a best time of 1:43.168 that put him 10th at the end of the session. He completed 17 laps overall. Rueda was on the pace from his very first flying lap. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 rookie quickly established himself in the Top 15, rising to seventh place before the end of his first run. Just 0.5 seconds behind the fastest rider in the session, the Spaniard pitted to fine-tune several aspects of his setup, before heading out again in the final minutes. Struggling with a slight lack of grip, he tried to improve his time with a different tyre, and finished in 11th place, his best result so far in FP1 as a Moto2 rider. His fastest lap of a session-high 20 was a 1:43.187.

In the afternoon, the two Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders had a similar experience to the morning session, facing track conditions of 16°C ambient temperature and 53% humidity.

Veijer had a positive session, maintaining a spot worthy of making Q2 from start to finish. After a reflex save to avoid a crash just before the end of his first stint, the Red Bull KTM Ajo man significantly improved his pace during his Time Attack, securing his place in the fight for pole position for the sixth consecutive time this season. Veijer finished ninth with a 1:42.088 after completing 19 laps. Rueda had a bittersweet session. He managed to stay in the Top 10 during his first run, but after a pit stop his Time Attack left him just 7 thousandths of a second shy of the Top 14, in 15th place. Whilst it was his best result in a Practice session, it means he will have to go through Q1, although he will start as one of the favourites to advance to Q2. The Spaniard set a best lap of 1:42.224 after 19 attempts, and was just 6 tenths of a second off the session’s fastest time.

After a Friday in which both Red Bull KTM Ajo riders improved by almost a second compared to FP1, the team is optimistic for the second day of the CatalanGP. On Saturday, the pair will take part in Free Practice 2 at 9:25 a.m. (local time). Rueda will be part of in Q1 at 1:40 p.m., with Veijer straight into Q2 at 2:05 p.m.

Practice Results
1. Celestino Vietti (Boscoscuro) | 1:41.611
2. Senna Agius (Kalex) | 1:41.625 (+0.014)
3. Alonso Lopez (Kalex) | 1:41.637 (+0.026)
4. Daniel Holgado (Kalex) | 1:41.815 (+0.204)
5. Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) | 1:41.827 (+0.216)
9. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:42.088 (+0.477)
15. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:42.224 (+0.613)

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“The morning was good for us. On the first stint we tried different things to see which direction was best to take here, and we saw that the pace was ok. During the second stint we had some issues, but in the afternoon it all went well and we managed to have a good Practice. The first run was ok, but we were capable to improve again on our last Time Attack, so I’m happy to have secured another Q2 appearance for this year. We will try hard again tomorrow, as we need to work more to achieve a good position on the grid.”

#98 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“Today went well, and we came very close to making it into Q2 -which is clearly the goal for tomorrow. I felt very comfortable in both sessions, and since France we seem to have taken a solid step forward that will allow us to have a much better time of it from now on. Now we need to analyse what we can improve and put it into practice tomorrow. I really like this circuit and I think we can enjoy ourselves a lot here, as well as finishing the weekend well.”