Despite placing 17th at the end of day one at the Austrian Grand Prix, Aron Canet had a strong day and showed top ten pace, while Deniz Öncü was 21st. 

After a day of intense rain and storms, the spectacular Red Bull Ring enjoyed calm, sunny conditions throughout Friday with temperatures hitting 19 degrees for Practice.

Times were tight in both sessions with half a second covering the top nine names at the close of Practice, and a full second covering the top 17.

The Moto2 action will continue on Saturday. Aron and Deniz will have a chance to refine their set-ups in FP2 at 09:25 local time before qualifying at 13:40.

Aron Canet, 17th – 1’33.349 

Following on from his best weekend in some time, Aron was immediately competitive in FP1 as he placed seventh overall.

The Spaniard started Practice well, and was sat inside the top ten positions in the session’s first half.

The 26-year old felt a top 14 time was possible at the end of the session, but was losing too much time in the third sector of the track.

“There are positives to take from today” 

Aron’s comments:

“It’s been another positive Friday – the second in a row. It’s a shame about the end of the session. I didn’t feel so comfortable through Turns 6 and 7 and was losing around three tenths of a second in that sector alone in my flying lap. If that didn’t happen, we would’ve been inside the top 14. Anyway, there’s no point dwelling on that. There are positives to take from today. The bike was working well, just like Misano. I’m still working on myself, which is the most important thing. Let’s see if we can continue like that tomorrow. We’ll keep at it and the aim will be to get into Q2 tomorrow and then try to qualify toward the top ten.” 

Deniz Öncü, 21st – 1’33.668 

Keen to recover from a tough weekend in Italy, Deniz started the day well by finishing FP1 in tenth place.

The Turkish rider had a tougher afternoon, however and was struggling in the Turn 2 chicane. Even though he was 1.2s off Filip Salac’s quickest time, Deniz ended the day in 21st.

Deniz’s ideal time in Practice was some two tenths quicker than his final time, which indicates there is more to come from the Turkish rider on Saturday.

“It was a tough day overall”  

Deniz’s comments:

“We’ve finished the first day here in Austria. It was a tough day overall. We have to understand what we need to do to fix the problems we’re having. I felt quite good this morning. But in the afternoon, I was struggling in the heavy braking areas, especially trying to enter Turn 2. Anyway, we can see other Boscoscuro bikes are fast here. We’ll sit down and look at the data this evening, keep our heads down and see what we can do tomorrow.”