The Dutchman places on the second row of the grid, with Rueda finishing 24th in his best result of the weekend and less than a second off Pole Position.

Collin Veijer will start from sixth on the grid at the Thai Grand Prix, after a strong Q2 performance in Buriram on Saturday. The Dutch rider was just over a tenth of a second off the front row, on a positive day. Teammate Jose Antonio Rueda improved his times in both sessions, taking 24th on the grid after a very tight Q1 that left him just three tenths of a second off a place in Q2.

Free Practice 2 offered temperatures of 27ºC degrees, only slightly less favourable than on Friday morning.

Veijer put in a good showing in the second and final Free Practice session of the weekend. He started calmly, completing a short run to continue fine-tuning his bike ahead of the race. Close to the Top 10 but still four tenths of a second slower than his best time from Friday, he went back out in the final ten minutes. From then on, he put in a fast and very consistent run, demonstrating both speed and confidence. Veijer lowered his time to 1:35.043 after 13 laps, which ultimately placed him sixth in the session. Rueda took another step forward, managing to go 3 tenths faster than in Practice right from the off. He first completed a short run that placed him in the Top 20 for the first time of the weekend, then he went back out on track with his teammate, splitting the session into two runs and focusing more on preparing for the afternoon’s Time Attack. The Spaniard managed to finish FP2 in 23rd position, with a time of 1:35.759. Having completed fourteen laps, Rueda was 9 tenths off the pacesetter.

Qualifying sessions took place under the highest ambient temperatures of the weekend, rising to 33°C.

In Q2, Veijer steadily improved his position with each lap. During his first run, he settled into the Top 10, whilst on his second Time Attack, the Red Bull KTM Ajo man provisionally moved into fourth place, stringing together two more laps with in which he had the fastest sectors thereafter. However, he couldn’t maintain his pace in the final parts of those laps, leaving him sixth with a 1:34.788 -2 tenths off pole position. This result is his fourth-best Q2 performance in the intermediate class.

Rueda was unable to make it out of Q1, but he continued to make consistent progress. The rookie shaved another 3 tenths off his time, finishing with a 1:35.453, just 3 tenths away from the Q2 qualification cutoff and under a second off pole position. It was his smallest gap to the leader in a session to date. After eight laps, he ended up 24th on the grid.

With Saturday done, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 duo are heading off to rest before tackling the main event – and the most demanding part – of the weekend: Sunday’s race. With very different goals for Collin Veijer and Jose Antonio Rueda, both will try to finish the first Grand Prix of the season by confirming the good feelings achieved throughout the weekend. The 22-lap Moto2 Thai Grand Prix race will take place on Sunday from 1:15 p.m. (local time) at the Chang International Circuit.

Qualifying Results
1. Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) | 1:34.576
2. Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) | 1:34.604 (+0.028)
3. Daniel Holgado (Kalex) | 1:34.625 (+0.049)
4. Ivan Ortola (Kalex) | 1:34.693 (+0.117)
5. Celestino Vietti (Boscoscuro) | 1:34.746 (+0.170)
6. Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:34.788 (+0.212)
24. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 1:35.453 (+0.877)

#95 COLLIN VEIJER

“I’m very happy with today. We improved from yesterday once again, so it was a nice Saturday. This morning we worked with used tyres to get on the pace with them; it wasn’t easy, but we did a good job. In Qualifying, I tried to follow some people during the first stint, but we struggled a little bit with that, so we decided to go out alone on the second run and we managed to take sixth place for tomorrow. I’m very happy with that, but we know that the points come in the races, so we will try our best to feel good and claim a strong result.”

#98 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“Today was another good day here in Thailand. We’ve kept improving our best time in every session, as well as our feeling with the bike, so we’re very happy about that. It’s all very close; we’re only 0.9 seconds off Pole Position, so bearing in mind we’ve only been on this bike for four days, we’re not doing badly at all. Even so, we have to keep working and stay focused on taking more small, consistent steps. It’s not easy to see ourselves so far back, but if we analyse where we’ve come from, we have to be very positive about what we’ve achieved in such a short time. Tomorrow we’ll go out there and give it our all and try to learn as much as possible.”