The Dutch rider, who returned to action in Italy, arrives in Assen ready to race in front of his home crowd. Teammate Deniz Öncü will aim for a third consecutive positive result.

Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 conclude a two-weekend run of races this weekend, with the team taking part in the DutchGP. Colin Veijer approaches his home round further along the road to full recovery from his arm injury, whilst Deniz Öncü will be looking to achieve his third consecutive good result in the tenth round of the season -as he targets a place in the Top 5 in the Moto2 standings.

Öncü arrives at Assen confident of continuing his solid form. After achieving two strong results in Qatar and Spain, the Turkish rider struggled in France and Great Britain. Now, following an upturn in fortunes in Aragon and Italy -where he placed sixth- he makes the trip to the Netherlands. Öncü knows Assen very well and has fond memories of the track, having competed there since his time with the Red Bull Rookies Cup in 2017. Except for one occasion, he has managed to finish in the points on every visit to the historic track, including third in 2023 in Moto3. Injury sidelined him for last season’s Dutch TT, so this will be his first time with a Moto2 bike at the track. He is currently seventh in the overall standings with 72 points.

Veijer will be one of the main attractions of the Dutch round. This will be his third time racing at his home track in the World Championship, and his first in the intermediate class. After returning from injury in Italy and making steady progress session after session, Veijer was 20th in the race, just 16 seconds off the winner. Although the heat and demanding track characteristics at Mugello posed a challenge, the weekend was a good opportunity for him to get some experience after five weeks of inactivity. Whilst he never rode at Assen in either the Red Bull Rookies Cup or Junior GP at Assen, he has competed there in two seasons as a Moto3 rider: In 2023 he placed seventh, while last year he started from the front row and managed to finish second in the race, just 12 thousandths of a second behind the winner. Veijer is 19th overall in Moto2, with 11 points.

In a special Grand Prix for Collin Veijer, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team wants to leave Assen with two good results. Deniz Öncü and the Dutch rider, who arrive from Italy with a good feeling after a competitive race last Sunday, will be fighting for it. The team is seventh in the Team Standings with 83 points, and have enjoyed good results at Assen: In the last ten editions of the Dutch TT, they have three wins, with Johann Zarco (2015), Raul Fernandez (2021), and Augusto Fernandez (2022). In addition, they have three second places through Zarco (2016), Brad Binder (2019) and Remy Gardner (2021), and a third place for Pedro Acosta (2023).

The intermediate class action starts on Friday at 9:50 a.m. (local time) with Free Practice 1. On Sunday, the 22-lap race takes place at 12:15 p.m.

Circuit information – TT Circuit Assen
Length: 4.5 km. / 2.8 miles
Width: 14m. / 45.93 ft.
Left corners: 6
Right corners: 12
Longest straight: 0.48km. / 1597.77 ft.
Built: 1955

#53 DENIZ ÖNCÜ

“We travel to Assen this week to finish the first double-header of the season. We want to keep pushing like we did at the last two rounds, so the goal for the Dutch TT is to be consistent throughout the weekend, achieve a good grid position and come home with the maximum points possible. We’ve been finding the way forward these last few weeks, so the most important thing is to be competitive from the first session and prepare for the race as much as we can to fight with the frontrunners.”

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“I’m very excited about my home Grand Prix -my third in the World Championship. It’s going to be a nice weekend with everyone around and a little bit busy, but we’ll try to enjoy it to the maximum and of course try to get a good result from it. Assen is a very nice track where the races are always fun, so l hope this year we can repeat that and put on a good show for all the fans who will be coming along to watch.”