Collin Veijer to start from the third row for the Hungarian Grand Prix
Collin Veijer qualified seventh on Saturday at the Balaton Park Circuit for Sunday’s Moto2 race of the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider once again demonstrated strong pace throughout the day and finished Q2 just two tenths of a second behind polesitter Izan Guevara.
After an impressive performance on Friday, Veijer managed to carry that form into Saturday. Under sunny skies and rising temperatures, the 21-year-old rider from Staphorst focused primarily on race pace during the morning’s Free Practice 2 session. Veijer opted for a long run of eighteen laps and set his fastest time of 1’40.588 on his eighth lap.
At the halfway point of the session, the Dutchman was running in second place. However, as many of his rivals switched to fresh tyres for a late time attack, he eventually dropped back to twelfth. Despite that, his lap time was still quicker than the one he had set on Friday.
Conditions became even more demanding during qualifying. With track temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius and humidity at 42 percent, Veijer made a strong start to Q2. During his first run, he even topped the timesheets briefly before other riders posted their fastest laps.
After a tyre change, Veijer returned to the track for a second attack. On his final lap, he improved his time to 1’40.526, securing seventh place on the grid. He missed pole position by just 0.202 seconds and was also only nine thousandths of a second away from his qualifying time at Balaton Park last year, a lap that earned him fifth place on the grid.
Collin Veijer: “My feeling was very good today. We will start from seventh, so I’m not ecstatic, but neither am I very sad. I know we could do it better, but it was all very close, so it could be worse. I’m very satisfied with the long run we did this morning in Free Practice 2. We’re one of the fastest in terms of pace, so tomorrow we will give it our all to be at the front. Of course, it will be very important to get a good start, so we’ll begin with this and then we will fight to be closer than at Mugello.”
The 22-lap Moto2 race at the Balaton Park Circuit will get underway on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. local time. Veijer will start from the third row of the grid.