Collin Veijer strong third in Jerez qualifying

With third place on the grid, LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Moto3 rider Collin Veijer laid a promising foundation for the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be held on Sunday at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto.

The race weekend in Jerez began on Friday in dry conditions and sunshine, but also experienced rain on Saturday morning, which caused a real shuffle in the time sheets and made the conditions for qualifying tricky. This made the times set in the two dry sessions on Friday all the more important. Collin Veijer got off to a good start at the Jerez Grand Prix, as he finished a good seventh in free practice, which he then improved to third place thanks to his 1’44.762 in P1. This time helped the young Dutchman to start in Q2, which he finished in a similarly strong third place behind Colombian pole-setter David Alonso. Thanks to his promising race pace, the 19-year-old is aiming for his first podium of the season in the 19-lap race, having been denied it in the USA a fortnight ago due to a crash in the race.

Collin Veijer, P3 – 1’46.013 (+1.059): “Qualifying was a bit tricky; it wasn’t so easy to set the lap times. But overall, I felt pretty good. I was able to set my times on my own, which was a confidence booster. But when it came to finding the lines on a lap, I almost crashed in turn two on my first lap when I hit a damp patch. Luckily, I stayed on the bike and found my rhythm. Eventually, I was able to do a 46.0, but then it became more and more difficult because of the used tyres. I was pretty much on the limit to set reasonable lap times. I think the race pace is a bit closer to that of the others and tyre management will play a role. Then we’ll see if we can challenge Alonso a bit.”