After an encouraging performance on Saturday morning, Aron Canet qualified 17th at the TT Circuit Assen while Deniz Öncü was 20th. 

The heatwave that has engulfed Europe is evident in the Netherlands this weekend. While skies were overcast during the afternoon, conditions were still punishing. Moto2 Q2 took place in ambient temperatures of 33 degrees.

Q1 was red flagged due to a crash for Jorge Navarro at Turn 15. Thankfully, the Spaniard was unhurt and the session resumed after a short stoppage.

Sunday’s race, which starts at 12:15 local time, is set to take place in slightly cooler temperatures and will be held over 22 laps.

Aron Canet, 17th – 1’36.062 

After a heartening Friday, Aron took to the track in FP2 determined to continue working on riding style adjustments to his Boscoscuro chassis. The signs were positive, as he set the ninth fastest time.

Q2 was highly-competitive with half a second covering the first 13 riders. Aron’s first run was promising as he set a low 1’36s on his second flying lap, and felt there was more to come.

The Spaniard was then frustrated late on. Despite improving his personal best, it was only good enough for 17th. Still, the 26-year old believes he has the rhythm to recover many places on Sunday.

“You can see in the times we’re not far away” 

Aron’s comments:

“I have a better feeling this weekend compared to one week ago and we confirmed that this morning. I was quite happy with my consistency over long runs. Also, I could make quite a fast lap when I pushed so I was confident ahead of qualifying. I don’t know if it was the higher temperatures but I didn’t have that same feeling. You can see in the times we’re not far away. But I couldn’t improve late in Q2 no matter how hard I tried. Anyway, tomorrow’s another day and I’m sure our pace means we can recover plenty of positions.” 

Deniz Öncü, 20th – 1’36.171 

Like his team-mate Deniz felt good in FP2 and was able to show solid consistency over his first run. And after pitting for some set-up adjustments, he could jump up to eleventh place at the close of the session.

The Turkish rider’s plans for Q1 were disrupted by the red flag as Deniz knew he would not have the time to pit again once the session restarted.

The 22-year old then set his fastest time on his first flying lap, but was unable to improve from there. The margins were tight and Deniz missed a top four place by just 0.068s.

“We’ll keep pushing and see how many places we can recover” 

Deniz’s comments:

“We finished the qualifying day here in Assen. The conditions were hot and hard. It was a very difficult qualifying session as everything was so close. I just missed one extra lap in that session which could have put us into the top positions. It’s a shame I didn’t get it. There’s not much more to say. Tomorrow will be a long race. We’ll keep pushing and see how many places we can recover.”