Red Bull KTM Tech3 headed to beautiful Tuscany this week for one of the riders’ favorites, the Grand Prix of Italy held at the scenic Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello. Hot conditions awaited both Valentin Perrone and Jacob Roulstone for this 9th round, officially launching the back-to-back races series, which will last until the season finale in Valencia, in November. Red Bull KTM Tech3’s boys completed the job on the opening day in Mugello, both qualifying directly to Q2 with an 8th place in Practice for Perrone, and 13th for Roulstone.
Grand Prix of Italy
Back at ‘the’ Mugello where he took his maiden win in the Red Bull MotoGP™ Rookies Cup last season, Argentinian Valentin Perrone appeared in good form on the first day as we saw the young 73 quickly find his marks on the 5.245 km layout. He took the 19th time of the opening Free Practice 1 this morning with a best lap in 1'57.372, before he approached the afternoon’s Practice with the confidence of a positive first session. With a 1’55.953, the young rider took the 8th time of the afternoon’s session to directly grab a Q2 ticket. Good job from Valentin who will approach qualifying day with a bit less pressure, and he will use FP2 to prepare well both qualifying and race pace.
Despite the unlucky outcome, last weekend out in Aragon was extremely positive for Australian Jacob Roulstone, and it is with even more hunger that the number 12 approached this new round in Mugello. He was just 1 second from the fastest lap this morning in FP1 with a 1'56.964 which had him 12th of the session. In the afternoon’s Practice, Jacob focused mainly on working on his race pace ahead of Sunday. He was provisionally out of the top 14 for a while, but he then put his focus on the time attacks in the final 10 minutes, to improve to a 1'56.201 that gave him the 13th spot in the timesheets, meaning he will join his teammate Perrone in Q2 on Saturday. The Moto3™ class will be back on Saturday ‘fresh’ and early at 8:40 LT (UTC+2) with Free Practice 2, followed later on at lunch time with the qualifying sessions. Valentin and Jacob will return on track at 13:15!
VALENTIN PERRONE: "Really good feeling today! I love this track, it is where I won my first race in the Rookies Cup last season, so it holds amazing memories for me. I felt very comfortable directly in Free Practice 1, and then we improved in Practice. Our feeling is positive, the set up is nice too, so let's just keep working to arrive at qualifying in the best way possible."
JACOB ROULSTONE: "Mixed feelings about today. Of course we are happy to go to Q2 directly, but to be honest, I was not able to flow on the bike and I did not position myself very well on the bike in both sessions. In that sense, we have a bit of work to do ahead of tomorrow, and hopefully we can do a better job in qualifying tomorrow to get ourselves good chances for Sunday."
PRACTICE SESSION RESULTS
1. David Almansa (SPA), Leopard Racing, 1'55.535
2. Taiyo Furusato (JPN), Honda Team Asia, +0.032
3. Ryusei Yamanaka (JPN), MT Helmets - MSI, +0.187
8. Valentin Perrone (ARG), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +0.418
13. Jacob Roulstone (AUS), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +0.666
TRACK RECORDS
All Time Record: 2024 - D. Alonso (COL) - 1'53.926 - 165.7 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2024 - C. Veijer (NLD) - 1'54.738 - 164.5 km/h
Best Pole: 2024 - D. Alonso (COL) - 1'54.194 - 165.3 km/h
Top Speed: 2024 D. Alonso (COL) - 251.7 - km/h
