José Rueda stamped his authority on Motorland Aragón by 6 tenths of a second and the 16-year-old Spaniard starts the weekend as favourite to maintain his points lead in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.

16-year-old Luca Lunetta and 17-year-old Filippo Farioli complete the front row for Italy. Rueda’s arch points rival Collin Veijer, the 17-year-old Dutchman, takes the middle of the 2nd row after qualifying just behind Harrison Voight the 15-year-old Australian.

Friday started bright and sunny, not too hot, perfect conditions for the KTM RC 250 Rs but by Qualifying the wind had got quite strong and blustery. It was still an intense session and all Rueda’s key opponents fancy their chances of taking the battle to him in what they expect to be a typical multi Rookie contest of slipstreaming and passing.

Rueda not planning on an easy race
“Yes I’m happy with that, my second pole I think and it’s a good start for the weekend.”

“It’s not easy, the back straight here is so long and you really need the slipstream to get the lap time and getting yourself in the right position is difficult.”

“I will try to break away tomorrow but I don’t know if it is possible, here it is a really difficult thing to do.”

Lunetta’s hard work paying off
“I’m absolutely happy with that. I trained so hard in the last two weeks since Misano to come here in the very best condition so I arrived here confident and with a lot of motivation.”

“Today was very very good, from FP1 the feeling was perfect with the bike, I changed nothing on the set up.”

“For the Qualifying I changed the sprocket, I put the short one because it helped me with the climb in T1. Going into the head wind there it is too hard but for the race we will change back as we will need it for the slipstream.”

Farioli improved the bike then himself
“From the start of the Quali the feeling was good. There was not too much wind across the track because at the end of the session the wind was stronger and it became very difficult to do the best times.”

“I did run alone one lap and was going well but made a mistake in T4 but it was OK and I wanted to see what it would be like alone in case that happens in the race.”

“We had made a change from Free Practice 1 to FP2, the feeling in the front was not so perfect but we improved it and from FP2 to Quali we didn’t change anything as the bike was good.”

“I changed a bit the style of riding and improved that way so I was pleased to find that.”

“I’m happy, I think it is possible to make a good race and I am ready for tomorrow.”

Voight thrilled with a boost
“Yeah, compared to Austria that was 5 times better, we needed that turn around and I needed that boost. I felt it after Free Practice 2 when I was second, I knew I could do it in the Qualifying.”

“My aim was the first 2 rows so that’s OK. I’m not so happy that I’m about a second off Rueda but it was difficult out there because so many riders were running slow so that cost us a bit of time. So I tried to not ride slow and remove myself from the group and ride around alone.”

“I’m happy to start 4th and I think we’ll be in there tomorrow for the podium.”

Veijer going for it in the races
“Quali was all right. The first run was a bit difficult, everyone was waiting. I managed to do one lap, then I came in to get a different tow.”

“It was a bit difficult again, I got the same lap time, I didn’t improve. Then in the last laps everyone kept following each other and it was quite a big mess. I tried my best to go through it but it was so difficult, I couldn’t improve.”

“We had made a good step from FP1 to FP2, changed to a smaller sprocket but in FP2 I found that it was too long and we changed back, it worked much better for the climb up the hill and I am happy with P5. I’m ready to fight for the win tomorrow.”
Broadcast

This weekend’s Rookies Cup races can be seen live on www.redbull.tv and on TV stations around the world.

Race 1 is at 16:30 CET on Saturday and Race 2 is on Sunday at 15:30, the show starts 10 minutes before the race.

For more info checkout our dedicated Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup News page Rookies Cup News

Or visit the official Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup website rookiescup.redbull.com/