Fifth consecutive Top 10 qualifying for Collin Veijer in Le Mans

Collin Veijer qualified inside the top ten for the fifth consecutive time in 2026 on Saturday afternoon in Le Mans. The 21-year-old Dutchman set the tenth fastest lap time at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, securing a place on the fourth row of the grid for Sunday’s Moto2 race at the Michelin Grand Prix of France.

Under sunny conditions, the Moto2 riders began the second free practice session on the French circuit on Saturday morning. With an air temperature of 16°C, Collin Veijer mainly focused on his race pace ahead of Sunday afternoon’s race. In the closing stages of the session, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider concentrated on setting a fast lap, allowing him to move up to ninth position. With a fastest time of 1’34.615 and sixteen laps completed, he ended the session feeling positive.

Later in the day, the track temperature rose above 35°C as qualifying got underway. In Q2, Veijer did not have an ideal opening run and found himself in seventeenth position after his first flying lap. However, the Dutchman immediately recovered by moving up to seventh place on his second attempt. After a visit to the pit box, Veijer managed to improve his fastest lap once again. With a time of 1’34.171, he set his best lap of the weekend and went more than three tenths quicker than his previous fastest time. Despite being only two tenths of a second away from pole position, he had to settle for tenth place on the grid in an extremely competitive session in which the lap record was once again broken.

Collin Veijer: “I’m not completely satisfied with today. This morning we worked with the used tyre, but that was quite difficult because of the cold conditions. Later in qualifying I gave it everything, but we couldn’t achieve a better result in Q2. The first run was not good enough, which meant I had to push one hundred percent in the second run. However, I came across a few riders in the gravel trap there, and because of that I couldn’t fully attack if I wanted to avoid a penalty. That’s a shame, but it is what it is. Tomorrow we will do our very best starting from tenth place, because we definitely have the potential here for a good result.”

The 22-lap Moto2 race at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans will start on Sunday afternoon at 12:15.