Ayumu Sasaki and Deniz Öncü kick off second weekend in hot Andalucia

With just a few days of rest, Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Moto3 duo of Ayumu Sasaki and Deniz Öncü has been back in action today at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto for the Gran Premio Red Bull de Andalucía.

Thereby, Sasaki initiated the third race weekend for the Moto3 World Championship 2020 in strong form, securing P13 by the end of Friday, which makes him hold onto a provisional direct Q2 spot for tomorrow’s Qualifying day. Yet, Öncü struggled with a technical issue in FP1 this morning, but was one of just a few riders who managed to go faster in the scorching second session of the day. He concluded Friday 0.644 seconds behind his teammate, eager to fight back on Saturday morning in Free Practice three at 9:00 local time.

Ayumu Sasaki

“FP1 went quite well today. In FP2, we missed a bit of speed. In the beginning, I didn’t feel very good on the bike and it seemed like I couldn’t find my great rhythm again. On the last lap, as usual in the Moto3 class, it’s just crazy inside the group. I only rode in the end and thereby tried to find some points to improve on for tomorrow. We could finish in provisional Q2 eventually and did a better job than last Friday. Now we will see what happens in FP3 and hopefully we can find a decent pace for Qualifying tomorrow.”

Deniz Öncü

“Actually, today was not so great for me. I felt a little bit lost and I know I need to come back. In FP1, I was quite slow and couldn’t use the colder conditions to do a quick lap time. In FP2, the asphalt was 25 degrees hotter, but I managed to improve my best time. It was not so bad, but I’m still not in the place, where I want to be. So, we need to continue working hard for the Qualifying and the race. I’ll push hard.”