Sixth place for Collin Veijer on MotorLand grid

Collin Veijer secured sixth place on the grid on Saturday during the Michelin Grand Prix of Aragón. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider enjoyed a good second day at MotorLand Aragón and qualified on the second row of the grid with a fastest lap time of 1’49.744.

Under sunny conditions, the second free practice session was first on the schedule on Saturday morning. Collin Veijer once again managed to make a step forward compared to the opening day. During his first run, the 21-year-old rider from Staphorst mainly focused on improving his feeling under braking and finding a good race pace. After a short stop in the pit box, Veijer managed to further improve his lap times. With a fastest lap of 1’49.905, he moved into the top ten. This made him half a second faster than his best lap time from Friday afternoon, with which he had qualified directly for Q2. In total, Veijer completed thirteen laps during the second free practice session.

During qualifying, conditions were considerably warmer, with the track temperature rising to around 50 degrees Celsius. Despite the heat, the pace was high and the lap record at MotorLand Aragón was improved once again.

At the start of Q2, Veijer opted to head out on track alone. On his first flying lap, he recorded a 1’50.0, which put him in sixth place. Not much later, he improved to a 1’49.744 and moved up to fourth position at that moment. After a tyre change, Veijer returned to the track in the closing stages for one final flying lap. He was unable to further improve his lap time, meaning he eventually finished qualifying in sixth place. With that, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider secured a place on the second row of the grid. It is his best starting position since his fifth place at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello.

Collin Veijer: “It certainly wasn’t a bad day. The second free practice session was a good session in which we found something that we were still missing on Friday, both in terms of speed and race pace. After that, we had a very good first run in qualifying. In the final minutes, we tried to improve a little more, but there are still a few small points we need to work on for Sunday. It’s nice to be back on the second row of the grid. We’ll try to make a good start and fight for a good result inside the top ten. Our race pace is quite good, so we need to try to build on that on Sunday.”

The Moto2 race of the Michelin Grand Prix of Aragón at MotorLand Aragón will start Sunday at 12:15 and will be contested over nineteen laps.