Veijer finishes #SanMarinoGP in strong 5th place, Sasaki 7th

There are no words of praise to do young Dutchman Collin Veijer justice in his rookie season. Just one week after his severe Q2 highside, Veijer delivered a masterpiece in Misano that deserves a lot of respect and recognition. Starting from tenth position, the 18-year-old carefully but gradually made his way forward until he finally reached the chasing group. There, he fought off veterans like Kaito Toba and team mate Ayumu Sasaki, and just when everyone was starting to struggle with the degrading tyres, the youngster really turned it up a notch and even achieved the best top speed of the race with 213.4 km/h. Within a few laps, he secured fifth place and finally crossed the finish line with a lead of almost three seconds over his pursuers. Thanks to this fantastic performance, Veijer collected eleven more World Championship points and is now in 13th after 12 races.

A seventh place is certainly not what Ayumu Sasaki was aiming for in Misano, but the Japanese rider can rely on the downer that Championship leader Daniel Holgado failed to score any points at all in the 20-lap race. Earlier, the 22-year-old had a rocket start from P2, took the holeshot in turn 1, but had to admit defeat due to brute manoeuvres by Jaume Masia, Deniz Öncü, Diogo Moreira and the eventual race winner David Alonso. In the further course of the race, Sasaki fought against his team mate, among others, for fifth position, but had problems in his left forearm, which made it difficult for him to clutch. In the end, the World Championship runner-up crossed the finish line in a solid seventh place, meaning he will travel overseas, for the final stage of the World Championship just four points behind, where he will try to use his consistency to claim the title.

After these exhausting weekends, it’s time to take a breath and recharge for the remaining eight races, seven of which will take place on the other side of the world, so there are many exciting and title-deciding weeks ahead. The action continues with the first-ever Indian Grand Prix from the 22nd – 24th of September at the Buddh International Circuit, where no one has ever raced before.

Collin Veijer – P5 (+4.800)

I am happy, for sure but I think that if I could have picked up my pace a bit faster, I could have done even better. But we can be happy with this race as we took fifth place after missing out in Barcelona. We did a good job, picked up a good pace and that gives us all the reason to be satisfied. We are looking forward to India, which will be a completely new track for everyone. That’s gonna be exciting and so we’ll have to wait and see what happens there but I feel ready.

Ayumu Sasaki – P7 (+7.782)

It was a really difficult race for me. The set-up was better than in Qualifying which was good but I still struggled to keep the pace. P7 is not the result we want but we further learnt from it too. We have to keep going and we know where we need to improve and I will focus on that. Now we’re heading off to Asia so I need to stay calm and focused.