First front row of the season for Collin Veijer in Barcelona

Saturday at the Catalan Grand Prix was one to remember for Collin Veijer. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider secured his first front-row start in Moto2 since moving up to the intermediate class.

With an ambient temperature of 19ºC, conditions were slightly cooler than on Friday during Free Practice 2. Veijer focused on race pace, completing a long run of almost 20 minutes to work on consistency and endurance. After placing 24th in his first stint, he returned to the track for the final eight minutes on fresh tyres to fine-tune his preparation for Q2. He improved lap after lap, eventually shaving more than a second off his previous best. His 1:42.329 lap was two thousandths quicker than his Friday effort, putting him seventh overall after 15 laps.

In qualifying, Veijer continued to improve. Initially climbing to 17th place in his first run, he was hampered by heavy traffic and a few small mistakes. On his final three laps, however, he took a decisive gamble — and it paid off. First moving up to 14th, then to fifth, and finally to third, his best lap of 1:41.738 earned him a well-deserved place on the front row for Sunday’s race in Barcelona.

Collin Veijer: “Today was really good. We had a very strong day. The morning wasn’t easy: we started on used tyres and just tried to keep the pace. With new tyres I felt confident, and we showed good speed ahead of qualifying. The first run in Q2 was difficult without much of a slipstream, and I couldn’t really find the pace, but in the second stint I just went flat out and gave it everything. In the end, we made it onto the front row, so I’m very happy. Tomorrow will be interesting — it’s going to be a long race, so let’s see what happens.”

With his first front-row start of the season secured, Veijer heads into Sunday’s Moto2 race highly motivated and determined to fight for a strong result. The 21-lap race gets underway at 12:15 p.m. (local time).