The Dutch rider will head the sixth row of the grid at Brno. His teammate Öncü, who came very close to qualify for Q2, will start 21st.

The second day of the Czech Grand Prix concluded with Collin Veijer in 16th place on the grid, his best Qualifying result of the season so far. His teammate, Deniz Öncü, came very close to making it into Q2, but missed out and will have to start from 21st.

Unlike Friday, Saturday at the Czech GP was sunny and cloudless, allowing the Moto2 riders to compete in Free Practice 2 with complete confidence.

Öncü got off to a good start, focusing on his race pace. After returning to the pits, he moved on to preparing for Qualifying, looking for more speed and moving up to 16th in Free Practice 2 after a total of 11 laps. His best time was a 1:59.899. Veijer completed 15 laps, as he also worked on consistency at a track where tyre wear will be key in the race. Finally, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rookie took 23rd place, with a quickest time of 2:00.272 after 15 laps.

With Qualifying on the horizon, temperatures rose exponentially compared to the morning FP2 session.

Veijer continued to make good progress in Q2, earning his best Qualifying result of both season and his Moto2 career. The Dutch rider posted his best lap of the session just before heading into the pits to change tyres. Although he tried to lower it again in the final minutes, his 1:59.411 time remained his strongest, 8 tenths faster than his top lap from Friday. He rode 7 laps in the session.

Also with 7 laps done, Öncü was caught out in a very demanding session. He had put himself in fourth place before heading into the pits to prepare for the final minutes. From then on, he dropped to seventh before completing his final flying lap. On this last attempt, he had the fastest pace of any rider in the first three sectors, but a small error on the final two corners took him out of the equation and he remained in seventh. His 1:59.189 leaves him 21st on the grid. However, had he advanced to Q2, he would have qualified in 12th with the same time.

All in all, good feelings for the two Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders, although the results may be better tomorrow. After two days of progress, both Collin Veijer and Deniz Öncü will try to finish the Czech Republic Grand Prix in the points. The Moto2 Czech GP race will start at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday and will last 18 laps.

Qualifying Results
1. Barry Baltus (Kalex) | 1:58.322
2. Joe Roberts (Kalex) | 1:58.342 (+0.020)
3. Marcos Ramirez (Kalex) | 1:58.579 (+0.257)
4. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) | 1:58.711 (+0.389)
5. Daniel Holgado (Kalex) | 1:58.805 (+0.483)
16. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:59.411 (+1.089)
21. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:59.189 (+0.867)* – Q1

#53 DENIZ ÖNCÜ

“It’s not the best result on the second day here at Brno. I was pushing a lot during my last lap in Q2, but on the last chicane I lost more than half a second because of a little mistake. I’m a little bit angry with myself about this, because it was so important to go through to Q2, but these things can happen. Now we can only focus on tomorrow’s race. It will be a long one, so I will push to the fullest in order to recover as many positions as possible, especially on the first few laps; that is the most important part of the race.”

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“The feeling wasn’t too bad today. In the morning we struggled a little bit on the long run, but we were ready for Qualifying. Then, in Q2, the first lap was quite difficult because I had a big moment at Turn 6, so it was a little bit tough for me to find a feeling. After that, we pushed with all we had and we achieved this 16th, which is not exactly what we wanted, but is good enough for tomorrow. We have to analyse a lot of things in order to be as prepared for tomorrow’s race as possible.”