RBR: Öncü dominates as Skinner and Jones score points

Turkish teenager Can Öncü has taken a dominant win in the first of the weekend’s two Red Bull Rookies Cup races at the Dutch TT, as British duo Rory Skinner and Dan Jones came home in the points in fifth and 13^th respectively.

Taking a second row start thanks to a three-place penalty from last time out in Jerez, Skinner spent the entire race in the battle for second place, eventually picking his way through the field from ninth in the final laps to only just lose out on fourth in the run to the line.

Jones had a solid run to 13^th in only his second round in the series, coming home just behind Finnish rider Peetu Paavilainen to score his first three points in the championship. Skinner sits fourth in the series after taking the win in the opening race at Jerez last month

From pole Öncü was completely in a race of his own after the first couple of laps on the KTM RC250 and halfway through the 16 laps he had an eight-second lead. “Of course I’m happy with that. I didn’t make a perfect first lap and got past by a couple of riders, I had to say to myself, ‘Come on, I can!’ I got in front and I just pushed and pushed to get away.”

“Once I saw that I had a good gap I just kept it but I wasn’t really pushing the limit, I could have gone quicker but I knew that I didn’t have to, I didn’t have to take any chances. The bike was great, we don’t need to change anything, it is ready to go tomorrow.”