The Turkish rider sets the eleventh fastest time in Indonesia. Celestino Vietti crashes and will start from eighteenth.

Qualifying for the Indonesian Grand Prix saw mixed fortunes for Red Bull KTM Ajo. The duo of Celestino Vietti and Deniz Öncü both went into Q2, with the Italian crashing during the session and his teammate earning eleventh.

Practice 2 allowed the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders to continue improving their setups and fight for a direct spot in Q2. Both riders also improved their times: Vietti was very consistent and completed a solid session, and after 14 laps clocked his best time on his last attempt: A 1:33.868 that allowed him to finish in eighth place. Öncü quickly made it into the Top 10 and never left it thereafter. The Turkish rider maintained a good pace to close the gap to the riders ahead, although in the final minutes he was unable to go faster. His 1:33.923 allowed him to finish tenth.

In Q2, the intermediate class riders fought for the best possible position on the starting grid. The Red Bull KTM Ajo duo wanted to carry over their good feeling from the morning, but unfortunately Vietti suffered a heavy crash at the start. Thanks to the great work by the team to repair the bike, he went back out on track, although he was unable to set a time and will take off from eighteenth. Vietti later went to the medical centre and was transferred to a local hospital for further examination, through which injuries were ruled out. On the other side of the box, Deniz Öncü was very consistent and worked hard to get a place on the front rows. The Turkish rider was improving his lap times and it was enough to get him into the top 10. Finally, Öncü finished in eleventh place with a time of 1:33.839.

The Moto2 Indonesian Grand Prix will start at 1:15 pm local time on Sunday.

Results Qualifying
1. Aron Canet (Kalex) 1:33.434
2. Jake Dixon (Kalex) 1:33.503 +0.069
3. Ai Ogura (Boscoscuro) 1:33.504 +0.070
4. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) 1:33.628 +0.194
5. Fermin Aldeguer (Boscoscuro) 1:33.662 +0.228
11. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:33.839 +0.405
18. Celestino Vietti (Red Bull KTM Ajo) *No time set

#13 CELESTINO VIETTI

“Today we improved a lot compared to yesterday. The feeling was better this morning but unfortunately I had a fast crash at the beginning of qualifying. I’m ok, but we wanted to make sure that everything was fine in the hospital. Maybe I pushed too hard, but we will check everything now to understand what happened, because I couldn’t even do one lap. I’m a bit disappointed especially because the team worked really hard. I’ll try to do my best tomorrow and try to recover as much as possible.”

#53 DENIZ ÖNCÜ

“We have finished Qualifying in Indonesia. It has been a positive day. I got 11th place, and I had a moment at the end of that fast lap that prevented me from further reducing the time. We will start from the fourth row, so we will give it our best and enjoy the race. We’re going to go for it!”