LUCKLESS ITALIAN GP FOR ELF MARC VDS DUO

Tony Arbolino was pushed wide at the first turn of a shortened Moto2 race at Mugello, meaning he had to fight back to 16th, while Filip Salac crashed out of 13th.

Despite weather forecasts predicting a lunchtime shower of rain, conditions were perfect at the fabulous Mugello circuit for the seventh Moto2 race of 2024.

The outing was reduced from 19 laps to 12 due to a red flag incident during the Moto3 race and the start time was delayed 15 minutes to 12:30 local time.

An attendance of 81,627 showed up on Sunday to watch the seventh Moto2 race of the year at the iconic Mugello Circuit, just 40 minutes outside the Tuscan city of Florence.

Tony started well from 16th on the grid, but was pushed wide into the race’s first corner, dropping him back to 25th.The Italian then mounted a fightback to gain some points but his progress was slowed when asked to drop a position on lap 7 for overtaking under a yellow flag. It meant Tony was limited as he continued to struggle with a lack of front-end feel.

The result keeps Tony 13th in the World Championship with 33 points.

Starting 19th, Filip enjoyed a fantastic getaway and gained nine positions on the first lap to sit 10th, but was pushed wide by another rider at Turn 1 starting the lap 2 and broke the brake adjuster when trying to take avoiding action.

The Czech rider was then struggling with the front brake, which caused a crash when sat 13th on lap 4. Filip managed to rejoin the race briefly before he eventually retired in the pits.

Filip now sits 18th in the World Championship on 14 points.

TONY ARBOLINO, 16th

“We just didn’t extract the maximum from the package this weekend. We tried something different in the race but again I didn’t feel comfortable and even more so in the first laps. The bike was taking me for a ride rather than me riding the bike. That’s what I missed the most, as I couldn’t be smooth. Now it’s time to make a reset and analyse what happened so we can be better at the next race. We need to look at times like on the first day in Qatar, when I had so much confidence with the front, and try and get that feeling back. At the moment I have zero confidence there. I couldn’t even force it today which is why I lapped at the same rhythm from the first lap to the end. Again, I had good pace when the tyres dropped but I don’t have a good feeling with new tyres. We need to work on that so I can start in front. As a consequence of that the race will be better.”

 FILIP SALAC, DNF

“I don’t have much to say. We all have bad days and this was one of them. I had an amazing start and passed nine people on the first lap. It was the first time this year we had a good set-up with used tyres. I was really trusting that we’d be competitive. We were riding around ninth on the first lap but starting the second another rider passed me so hard. I had to do a fast motion to avoid a crash and I broke the front brake adjuster with my hand. As soon as I was in the slipstream of other riders the front brake overheated and went softer. That meant I was having some problems stopping the bike and I couldn’t adjust it. Then unfortunately I had a crash because of this. I did my best but, unfortunately, we had some bad luck. Let’s take the positive points from this weekend and then move onto the next one.”