With the Dutchman 14th, the water has appeared in the Moto2 Practice at Brno. Öncü, just fourteen thousandths of a second behind his teammate, was 15th and will go through to Q1.

Friday at Brno was a positive day for Collin Veijer, who made it directly into Q2 for the first time since joining the Moto2 class. Whilst he placed 14th as rain appeared in the afternoon session, Deniz Öncü was caught out by the weather and finished 15th, just 0.014s off the cutoff for Q2.

Morning rain had stopped and the asphalt had improved slightly for the first Moto2 session, although track temperatures were only at 20ºC.  

Öncü started strongly in FP1, and on his second flying lap the Turkish rider climbed to second place, although he eventually held a steady spot in the Top 10. With previous experience at Brno from 2019 and 2020, he quickly adapted to the new asphalt at the Czech track, and as the laps went by a dry line was established around the entire track, allowing him to focus on his pace. He completed 15 laps, his best a 2:12.767 that put him 14th. Veijer also began well, in conditions that usually suit him. Exploring the circuit lap after lap, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rookie made consistent progress up the timesheets, taking over 2 seconds off his top time with 15 minutes remaining and moving from 22nd to 18th. He continued to find his groove in the final stretch without focusing on Time Attack, which resulted in him finishing 21st with a best lap of 2:13.365 and 18 laps completed.

Track temperatures on the dry surface had risen by 11ºC for the afternoon, albeit with an unfavourable weather forecast.

Veijer made it into the Top 14 early on, and remained 14th after six laps, until the appearance of rain which changed the panorama of the session until the very end. Within a few minutes, a torrential downpour came down, forcing everyone to head to Pit Lane. In the final minutes, and with the rain increasingly prevalent, only the Dutchman and one other rider decided to go out on track to test the conditions, although after two laps, they both decided to return to the box. Veijer secured his first direct spot in Q2, with a best time of 2:00.220 on his seventh attempt of ten. Öncü set a time almost exactly the same as his teammate (2:00.234), but had to settle for 15th place when the rain arrived. Just thousandths of a second outside the cut, he only put in six laps and will have to compete against several top competitors in Q1 on Saturday.

In conclusion, it was an exciting but bittersweet Friday for the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team, who missed out to have both riders in Q2 by just a few thousandths of a second, with five riders within a tenth of a second of each other. Free Practice 2 on Saturday starts at 9:25 a.m. (local time). In the afternoon, Öncü will take part in Q1 at 1:45 p.m., with Veijer in Q2 from 2:10 p.m.

Practice Results
1. Joe Roberts (Kalex) | 1:59.032
2. Filip Salac (Boscoscuro) | 1:59.574 (+0.542)
3. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) | 1:59.604 (+0.572)
4. Marcos Ramirez (Kalex) | 1:59.719 (+0.687)
5. Senna Agius (Kalex) | 1:59.771 (+0.739)
14. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 2:00.220 (+1.188)
15. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 2:00.234 (+1.202)

#53 DENIZ ÖNCÜ

“This first day in Brno was with mixed conditions. We will have to go into Q1 tomorrow, so it’s not an easy weekend for us. There is no more rain expected for the rest of the weekend, so this is positive. We were a little bit unlucky this afternoon during the Practice: when I was coming out the pits with the new tyre on, heavy rain started to fall, so it was impossible to improve. In the dry we’re not so far off the pace, so we’ll try to improve some things for tomorrow and fight to be in Q2, which will be very important for Sunday’s race. As always, we will take away the positives and we look forward to the second day.”

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“Today wasn’t so bad. This morning we had a little bit of a problem with engine braking, but we managed things quite well. The feeling is OK here; we still need to find something more to take a step forward in comparison with Sachsenring, but we’re on the way to doing that. Every time we went out in the wet, it was going better and better, and Practice went quite well. We pushed from the beginning to achieve a good time before the rain arrived and we did it, so we will be in Q2 tomorrow. Let’s see how far up the grid we get, but for the moment, I’m satisfied. The track is beautiful, so let’s try to enjoy tomorrow, which will be an important day for us.”