ARBOLINO RECOVERS TO TENTH IN DRAMATIC CATALAN GP

Tony Arbolino shrugged off two penalties to finish 10th at the Circuit of Barcelona Catalunya in a fine comeback ride while Filip Salac recovered from a tough qualifying to place 13th.

Sunday was the hottest day of the weekend so far, with Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Tony Arbolino and Filip Salac racing under clear blue skies and ambient temperatures of 25 degrees.

An attendance of 76,124 showed up on Sunday to watch the sixth Moto2 race of the year at the iconic Circuit of Barcelona Catalunya, situated just half an hour outside Barcelona.

Starting 14th, Tony had a tough getaway and ended the first lap in 20th. He was then handed a Long Lap Penalty for cutting the track at Turn 2. After completing it on lap eight, the Italian dropped to 22nd.

Tony then found his groove and started making a series of overtakes while showing podium pace. But it was deemed that Tony overtook under a yellow flag when he was up to 11th and was then handed a one position penalty after the chequered flag. This dropped the 23-year old from 9th to 10th in the final results.

The result sees Tony rise to 11th in the World Championship with 32 points.

Getting away from 17th on the grid, Filip enjoyed a strong start and opening lap. By the end of lap two, the Czech rider was up to 14th when carefully managing his rear tyre.

The 22-year old was sitting in a strong 10th with three laps to go until he started suffering from a serious lack of rear grip. He was then able to bring it home for 13th.

The result means Filip is 17th in the World Championship with 13 points.

TONY ARBOLINO, 10th

“The first laps were a disaster! We need to analyse where we can extract more from the bike in the first three or four laps. But the pace was amazing after that. The development of the bike and how I was riding it was really good once we got into a rhythm, and I feel I could have been fighting for the top three or four positions without the tough start. Early on I’m lacking punch on the bike. So, we’ll look at how I can change my riding to get the best out of the bike with new tyres and a full fuel tank, as well as on a qualifying lap. Improving my qualifying will be a big target for Mugello. We knew there would be a drop with the tyres in the race, which was good for us as we could manage it really well. Let’s go again next week in Mugello!”

 FILIP SALAC, 13th

“I had a good start, which was super important today because we were quite far back on the grid. On the first lap I really tried to save the rear tyre on the right side. I was losing to other riders in the fast corners because I was already in conservation mode and I could see some of them sliding from the first laps so I thought, ‘Let’s wait until the end, when we’ll have an advantage.’ But in the last four laps I had a big drop. I was riding in 10th but at that moment I wasn’t even able to turn the bike a bit with the throttle, as I had so much sliding. I’m a little unhappy with the result but I’m happy with myself because I really gave everything today. I didn’t do any mistakes in the race. We need to check the data and try to go forward from this and change something, maybe on the bike, or with my riding style. We need a solution to go faster because we’re still quite far from our target. But I want to thank the team for a good weekend and let’s try again in Mugello.”