Collin Veijer snatches P2 in Mugello slipstream battle
Top start, red flag, restart and another battle for the lead ended in a strong second place for LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Moto3 rider Collin Veijer after thrilling slipstream duels, adding another 20 championship points to his account.
The Italian Grand Prix is a guarantee for thrilling slipstream duels, but the Moto3 race in Mugello was hard to beat in terms of excitement, as the battle for victory between David Alonso and Collin Veijer continued right up to the line after the restart. This came about after an early incident on lap 4 involving Xabi Zurutuza and Filippo Farioli, which forced the race to be red-flagged. Tatsuki Suzuki also crashed in this phase by highsider but was able to return to the pits on his own in time to resume the restart.
The starting grid for the restart was based on the positions from lap 3 before the cancellation and so Collin Veijer went into the second race start in third place, from which he again got away very well. He emerged from the first corner in third place, immediately took up the chase and moved into the lead from the slipstream of the 1,141-metre-long straight at the start of the second lap.
Over the course of the sprint race, which was shortened to 11 laps, a tight group of six riders formed and led the battle for victory all the way to the line. Right in the middle of it all: the Dutchman, who already had a few leading kilometres behind him, suddenly found himself in sixth position shortly before the end of the race and had to watch as David Alonso opened up a gap of over 0.5s at the front. The 19-year-old did not hesitate for long and, with two laps remaining at the end of the start/finish, moved back out of the slipstream into second position and took up the chase with the fastest race lap. In the end, he was just 0.142s short of the victory in Italy.
Collin Veijer, P2 – (+0.142) Moto3 World Championship 2024 – P3 – 95 Points: “I’m happy because the feeling was good throughout the race, even when I was in the lead. At one point, I was behind the group and I was able to keep up easily. It was clear to me that I had to get back to the front, otherwise the leader would have been gone. In the end, I did it a bit too late. I managed to catch David [Alonso] on the last lap, but next time we’ll have to bother him a bit more! A good race and we’ll try again at my home Grand Prix.”
The youngster now heads home to the Netherlands in third place in the championship, where his home Grand Prix at the Dutch TT in Assen is on the agenda in four weeks’ time and where the victory-hungry local hero will be looking to strike back.