Rueda to 15th in Japan

The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider will line up on the fifth row at Motegi, with stand-in teammate Milan Pawelec in 27th.

Jose Antonio Rueda will start from 15th at the Moto2 Japanese Grand Prix. The Spanish rider secured a spot on the fifth row of the grid, after a Q2 session where he came close to finishing much higher up the timesheets. Milan Pawelec made good improvements in FP2, but had a somewhat more difficult Q1, and will be 27th at the beginning of the race.

Conditions were favourable early on Saturday at Motegi, with much more sunshine than on Friday morning and significantly higher track temperatures -reaching 30°C for Free Practice 2.

Rueda took a big step forward throughout the session. While he had shown competitiveness over a single lap whilst using a reference point on Friday, a new day brought newfound confidence and pace. He consistently ran within the Top 20, climbing as high as eighth in the closing stages of the session with a 1:47.727 that was 4 tenths of a second faster than his best time from the opening day. Ultimately finishing 14th, he completed a 17-lap continuous run -effectively a race simulation and more than any other rider.  Pawelec continued his adaptation to the bike, team, and circuit, making solid progress compared to the previous day. Focusing on race pace and consistency, the Polish rider managed to shave time off his lap in the final stages, improving his best lap from Friday by a full second. With a 1:48.899, he finished within two seconds of the leader for the first time this weekend. The stand-in rider put in 14 laps across two runs, finishing the session in 27th place.

Later in the afternoon, track temperatures rose to 37°C for qualifying, during which a new circuit record was again set.

In Q1, Pawelec struggled to feel comfortable with new tyres. His first run was not ideal, forcing him to pin all his hopes on the second run, where he did manage to improve his time on three consecutive laps. However, just as he was finding his best pace, the session came to a close, leaving him to settle for 27th place on the grid with a time of 1:49.697. He put in 8 laps.

In Q2, Rueda completed two solid runs, working without many reference points from other riders. After a strong initial outing, he went back out and moved up to ninth place -just four-tenths off the top spot- with a time of 1:47.619. However, he was unable to improve on his final two flying laps, ultimately dropping to 15th, 7 tenths off pole position. In total, Rueda completed 8 laps.

All in all, it was a bittersweet Saturday for the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 duo. On the one hand, Rueda came close to securing a place on the front rows of the grid, whilst Pawelec was unable to replicate in Q1 the progress he had made during the morning session. With the clear goal of finishing in style the weekend in Japan, both riders will face tomorrow the 19-lap Moto2 Japanese Grand Prix race from 12:15 p.m. (local time) at Mobility Resort Motegi.

Qualifying Results
1. Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) | 1:46.851
2. Filip Salac (Kalex) | 1:46.902 (+0.051)
3. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) | 1:46.961 (+0.110)
4. Daniel Holgado (Kalex) | 1:46.967 (+0.116)
5. Tony Arbolino (Kalex) | 1:47.044 (+0.193)
15. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:47.619 (+0.768)
27. Milan Pawelec (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:49.697 (+2.846)

#98 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“The day got off to a great start in FP2. I felt better than expected; my pace was good, I felt fast, and I got off the bike feeling extremely confident -all from just a single run with one set of tyres. Later, in qualifying, I wasn’t able to fully make the most of the first tire, so I had to take a risk with the second one. Honestly, it wasn’t our best Q2, and I know we could have qualified higher up the order, but that’s racing. Now it’s time to analyse the reasons behind these difficulties with the new tyre and start preparing for tomorrow’s race, which is sure to be a tough, hard-fought battle from start to finish.”

#40 MILAN PAWELEC

“Today wasn’t an easy day. We started quite well in Free Practice 2, improving our feeling and also our lap times compared with yesterday’s sessions. Unfortunately, we did not have the best Qualifying, as I suffered a bit using the new tyres. On our second stint things went better, but just when we started to improve, the session was over. Of course, we did take away a lot of experience and data for tomorrow and for the future, so now we need to focus on Sunday’s race. I will try to get a good result for the team, in order to thank them for the opportunity and all the work they have done throughout the weekend.”