ARBOLINO MAKES THRILLING PODIUM RETURN IN TIGHT ARAGON DUEL!

Tony Arbolino finished 2nd after a race long duel with Jake Dixon to claim a first Moto2 podium of the year at the Motorland Aragon Circuit, while Filip Salac gained 9 places to come home 11th.

Heavy morning rain left the 5.08km Motorland Aragon Circuit fully wet ahead of the day’s first race. It had, however, dried by 12:15 local time, when the 12th race of the 2024 Moto2 World Championship started.

Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Tony Arbolino and Filip Salac raced in front of a Sunday attendance of 55,977, with the grandstands along the start-finish straight packed to capacity.

Starting from 5th on the grid, Tony enjoyed a rapid getaway and gained 3 places on the 1st lap to sit 2nd, behind Jake Dixon.

The Italian was then engaged in a race long duel with the Englishman. Aside from laps 4 and 5, when he took the lead, the 24-year old shadowed Dixon until the penultimate lap, when he settled for 2nd. He finished 1.7s back of the eventual victor at the flag.

Tony’s best result of the season means he now sits 10th in the World Championship with 81 points.

Filip had work to do after qualifying 17th on Saturday. A 3-place grid penalty, given on Friday afternoon, meant he started 20th. But the Czech rider had a fine start and first lap, gaining 7 places to sit 13th on lap 1.

By lap 8 Filip had risen to 12th and was engaged in a race long fight with Ayumu Sasaki to keep the place. He held off the Japanese rider’s challenge and gained a further spot on the final lap to finish 11th.

Filip still sits 20th in the World Championship standings with 25 points to his name.

TONY ARBOLINO, 2nd

“I feel so grateful for this moment! I’ve been working so hard to get here. In my mind, I never thought for one minute that I had become a bad rider. I always knew that I’m still a fast one with such a big talent. I want to say thanks to the guys. Even in the tough times they knew we still had great potential. It was really difficult to manage the tyres in the race today. But we did it in a good way. There are still a few things to polish with the set-up and consider to improve. But I’m sure we can figure it out. I’m feeling confident we can keep going like this and even make another step so we can finish this year in the best way possible by collecting some podiums and really good points.”

FILIP SALAC, 11th

“A tough race. It’s never easy to come back from 20th position! Especially here in Aragon, as the track was so dirty if you went off the racing line. When you go out of the line it was so easy to crash. Overtaking riders was so hard. In the end we had a good start and the pace wasn’t bad. But in the last few laps I was completely KO’d. I was just trying to make the finish. With the antibiotics I was dead. We finished the race and there were many positives to take. But still the result isn’t anything to celebrate. I’m happy for the team and for Tony. Congratulations to him and I hope that I’ll be able to join him on the podium soon!”