CELESTINO VIETTI TAKES VICTORY ON THE LINE AT MISANO

The Italian rider achieves his second win of the season, while Deniz Öncü suffers a crash and is unable to complete the race.

The Moto2 race at the Emilia Romagna GP provided an exciting fight for victory in the intermediate class. Celestino Vietti snatched his second win of the season in the final metres. Deniz Öncü suffered a crash early on when fighting for the points, and was unable to complete the Grand Prix.

Vietti had one of his best performances in Moto2 to date. The Italian rider, who started the race from fourth, got away well and moved up to second place. After securing the position, he tried to close the gap to the leader. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider’s intelligent race management allowed him to be very consistent, lap after lap. Despite a few small scares and falling to third position, he was able to recover, and eventually made the definitive overtake on the line for a win in front of his home crowd.

Öncü did not have the best weekend at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. The Turkish rider had not been feeling good, although he made progress in each of the sessions in preparation for the race. Öncü started the contest determined to fight back and earn points. After recovering several positions early on, he unfortunately crashed soon after the start and was unable to remount.

The next round for Red Bull KTM Ajo will be the Indonesian Grand Prix, held from September 27-29th at the Pertamina Mandalika Circuit.

Aki Ajo – Team Manager

“All of us are really happy about one of the most exciting races in long, long time in Moto2. Honestly, on the last lap I was thinking that, whatever happened, I’d be happy – because it was so exciting. Cele made some mistakes because they were having a really hard fight, but the most important thing is that he controlled his focus, even on the last lap and especially the last corner. He made an excellent exit to pass just before the finish line. I’m so happy for all the people and the work we’ve done in the last few races. A win is always a win, but I’m really happy for the group. Deniz crashed today after two difficult weekends following his podium in Aragon. Despite that, today was very positive and in the race he passed many riders. Most of all, it is important that he got his confidence back. I’m really looking forward to going to Indonesia and all the flyaway rounds, to try to maintain the good pace and good spirit in the team.”

#13 CELESTINO VIETTI

“From the start until mid-race I felt very good. But from 8 laps to the end I felt that I could catch Tony and I tried to be at the front. But then I made a mistake with my braking and I almost crashed out. I made some mistakes, so I thought that maybe third place would be okay. Then I saw the mistakes from Tony and on the last corner I also saw Aron braking a lot and going past his braking point, so I went for it to try to get him. I did it. I am very happy, because last Sunday was a bit sad for us.”

#53 DENIZ ÖNCÜ

“Today I crashed out in the race for the first time this year. I want to apologise to the team for that. Coming here I wasn’t at my best level, but I was getting better and better. However, on track I struggled a lot, but today in the race I decided to push. At the beginning I gained some positions and I thought that I could fight for the points. I got stuck behind a group, and when I overtook Masia I was going really fast and I crashed out. At least today I was pushing to my limit and hopefully in the next race I can get back to my normal potential.”