Celestino Vietti finishes in 11th position, with Marcel Schrötter 21st.

Red Bull KTM Ajo began the ninth round of the Moto2 season on Friday at Sachsenring. Celestino Vietti and Marcel Schrötter faced a difficult day, but the former clocked the eleventh best time of the day. The home rider -replacing Deniz Öncü once again- was 21st.

The morning Practice took place under temperatures that were fairly low, and the presence of high winds created problems on track. Vietti and Schrötter started their search of a good setup for their bikes, making steady progress. Vietti climbed positions lap after lap and, after a pit stop, fought for the Top 10 on the timesheets. Putting in 23 laps, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider achieved his best time on the fifteenth attempt, with a 1:24.054 that placed him 14th. Schrötter started his second Grand Prix with the team on Friday. He has extra motivation to continue improving this weekend at his home round, and felt much more comfortable than at Assen. He closed the gap to his rivals, achieving a time of 1:24.938, placing him 21st.

Friday’s Practice 1 was a new opportunity to continue fine tuning setups, and Vietti had some difficulty finding the best feeling possible. However, the Italian improved by more than half a second compared to the morning and closed the gap with the frontrunners. In the closing minutes he fought for the Top 10 and placed eleventh, just a few tenths away from the Top 3. Schrötter upped his pace and lowered his times by more than a second compared to the first session. He continued working on improving his feeling and preparing his strategy for Sunday’s race, but was not able to beat his best time from Practice in the closing minutes and his 1:23.995 put him 21st.

Moto2 qualifying takes place on Saturday from 1:45 pm local time.

Results Practice 1
1. Somkiat Chantra (Kalex) 1:22.698
2. Jake Dixon (Kalex) 1:23.049 +0.351
3. Fermin Aldeguer (Boscoscuro) 1:23.105 +0.407
4. Bo Bendsneyder (Kalex) 1:23.123 +0.425
5. Aron Canet (Kalex) 1:23.227 +0.529
11. Celestino Vietti (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:23.469 +0.771
21. Marcel Schrötter (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:23.995 +1.297

#13 CELESTINO VIETTI

“Today was a positive day overall. We improved lap by lap and we are going in the right direction. It is not an easy track for me but we are working well and we are closing the gap to those at the front. We are also only 0.3 off second place, so everything is very close. Tomorrow it won’t be easy to be in the top positions but we will fight to be in the Q2 spots.”

#32 MARCEL SCHRÖTTER

“Overall, the first day went okay. Of course, I expected to do a little bit better, but compared to Assen we did that, so I’m happy to keep improving session by session. I was fast and I could fight for P15, so that’s something positive and what we are aiming for, being realistic. It was a good session and I think I can achieve more, so hopefully tomorrow we can give it our best and fight for those Q2 spots.”