Sam Lowes timed his qualifying attack to perfection at the Sachsenring to claim a first pole position of the year while Tony Arbolino was a much-improved seventh.

Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino took on some of the most demanding conditions of the year on Saturday at the Sachsenring. Sweltering temperatures of 34 greeted the riders for the all-important qualifying session for the tenth race of the 2022.

/// SAM LOWES, 1^st – 1’23.493

• In FP3, the 31-year old continued to work on his feel with used tyres and finished 12^th.
• After starting Q2 with the harder rear tyre, Sam built up his confidence with two fast times. The Briton then switched to the softer rear tyre, and posted a time that was less than a tenth of a second off the outright circuit record.
• This is Sam’s 18^th pole position in the class – two more than Tito Rabat, the rider with the second highest number of poles in Moto2 history.

“We’re in the mix and where we want to be every weekend”

“It’s a track I enjoy but I’ve always missed the key to make a really nice lap time here. In qualifying we started with the harder tyre and did two laps. I felt I could also go quite fast with this tyre so that gave me some confidence. Then we put the main tyre in and we did a great step. I knew the first flying lap was the one to really push. I did a great lap and was actually surprised with the time. I’m really happy with it! We’ve worked really hard for the race pace this weekend and changed the bike a lot. I have to say thank you to the team. We’re in the mix and where we want to be every weekend. We’re very satisfied with this result as it’s good to start near the front. For five or six laps, a lot of people have similar pace. Then the end will be more spread out. It will be a tight race between two or three people. But I feel like, especially in the second half of the race, we’re in a stronger point. I can be confident.”

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 7^th – 1’24.091

• After missing all of FP1 due to an unfortunate early crash, Tony was still playing catch up in FP3 with bike settings and ended up 17^th in that session.
• The 21-year old came through Q1 with the fourth fastest time before producing a remarkable save from a front-end slide at turn one.
• The Italian was able to lower his personal best lap time by nearly a tenth of a second in Q2 to qualify seventh, 0.5s off pole.

“I feel like I’m ready to race and that we can do a good job”

“As we didn’t complete FP1, I’m really proud with the work done. I want to thank my crew, who have worked a lot. I’m also super proud about that. We need to have an amazing fight. We’re starting from the third row, so we need to keep improving the pace. Honestly, I feel like I’m ready to race and that we can do a good job. I can’t wait for tomorrow. The first laps will be important and I’m going to try to be aggressive early on and gain some positions. After that, we will see!”