While Aron Canet was 18th and Deniz Oncu 22nd at the end of the first day at the Spanish Grand Prix, both riders reported improvements in terms of their feeling.

The legendary Circuito de Jerez Angel Nieto hosts the fourth round of the 2026 Moto2 World Championship this weekend.

Friday in Andalusia was cooler than usual in late April. Skies were overcast throughout, with ambient temperatures a mild 20 degrees during afternoon Practice.

The Moto2 action was typically tight on Friday afternoon with an astonishing 21 riders covered by just one second.

Aron Canet, 18th – 1’39.788

Around one of his favourite circuits, Aron showed signs of promise in FP1. Despite sitting around 20th early on, he jumped up the order late on to place 14th.

Aron used the first part of Practice to put his consistency to the test. The Spaniard was constant over an 8-lap run. Five of those times were in the 1’40s.

While he was pushing in the final minutes, the 26-year old couldn’t extract the maximum from his package over a flying lap – a clear area to improve on Saturday.

“It’s great to be riding again after the three-week break”

Aron’s comments:

“It was a difficult day here in Jerez. It’s great to be riding again after the three-week break. We made some improvements during the day but it wasn’t enough to get into Q2. Little by little, we’re getting closer. Still, there is plenty of work to do. In Practice I could be fast in Sectors 1 and 2 but struggled to put a full fast lap together. We need to improve tomorrow morning our pace for the race and our outright speed so we can qualify well, which is so important for Sunday’s race. The aim for tomorrow is to qualify as close to the front as possible.”

Deniz Oncu, 22nd – 1’39.979

Deniz started Friday well and found himself inside the top ten before he tucked the front at Turn 9 and crashed. Thankfully the Turkish rider was OK as he finished the session in 11th.

The 22-year old enjoyed a productive first run in Practice as he set six laps in the 1’40s during a ten-lap run.

Even if his outright speed was lacking after, Deniz felt much more comfortable through the day and is confident set-up improvements will soon pay off.

“We definitely made a good progression today and we improved the feeling”

Deniz’s comments:

“The first day has finished here in Jerez. It was good to get back out on track after nearly a month of no racing. If you check the result, P22 isn’t the best. But we definitely made a good progression today and we improved the feeling which allowed me to ride better. There were times during the day when we were sitting inside the top ten and I felt more comfortable overall on the bike. This was good. Tomorrow we’ll keep working. We’re fully motivated to make sure we improve on recent results.”