Highly competitive Q2 leaves Collin Veijer 15th at Phillip Island

It was a bittersweet Saturday for Collin Veijer at the Australian Grand Prix. The Dutch rider showed solid pace in Free Practice 2, but faced adversity during Q2, ending the session in 15th position after yellow flags disrupted his early flying laps.

Collin Veijer was among the first to head out on track to assess the conditions and quickly climbed into the Top 10. Opting to stay on wet tyres rather than switching to slicks in the final stages, he focused on building confidence and collecting valuable data. His best time of 1:41.489, set on his 13th lap out of 17, placed him 15th overall.

Conditions for Q2 were similar to those of Friday’s practice, with track temperatures around 28°C and humidity at 59%. Unfortunately, Veijer’s opening two flying laps were affected by yellow flags following crashes from other riders, turning the final three minutes of the session into a decisive shootout.

He took advantage of his first clear lap to climb to 11th, and although he managed to improve his lap time by over four tenths of a second on the next attempt, he couldn’t better his position. On his final attack, a small mistake prevented him from delivering a perfect lap, ultimately placing him 15th on the grid — rounding off the fifth row. With a best time of 1:30.536, Veijer improved by three tenths compared to his previous best, completing eight laps in a consistent solo run.

Collin Veijer: “I felt quite good today. This morning we had to deal with strange conditions in FP2, but we managed well with the wet tyres and a soft setup to get the right feeling. In Qualifying, I tried to do the first stint behind other riders, but there were a lot of yellow flags from crashes, so some of my flying laps were cancelled. In the second stint, I struggled a bit to put together a perfect lap, so we ended up 15th. Of course, I think we could have done better, but that’s racing. We’ll analyse everything and try to be stronger tomorrow in the race.”

Saturday ends with a clear goal for tomorrow’s Moto2 Australian Grand Prix: make a strong start and fight for a solid points finish. Veijer will line up for the 23-lap race at 1:15 pm (local time) on Sunday.