A late push carried Tony Arbolino to second at the end of Friday, a day complicated by inclement weather at the Grand Prix of the Americas, while Sam Lowes was a promising sixth.

• Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino found the spectacular Circuit of the Americas lacked grip in the morning’s P1 session. It also took some time to familiarise themselves with the numerous bumps around the technical 5.5km layout.
• The afternoon was complicated by the weather conditions. Short showers of rain caused riders to come in and out of the box, before it relented for the final four minutes, allowing for the fastest times of the day.

/// SAM LOWES,  6^th – 2’10.361

• Sam and his crew tried a variety of different settings during the first session and found a good set-up direction, ending P1 in 11^th, 0.448s off the top.
• Rain disrupted the Briton’s afternoon programme, but a late run showcased Sam’s potential, with his best time 0.505s off pace setter Pedro Acosta.

“I feel like I can ride a bit better tomorrow”

“Overall, it was a good day. We tried quite a few things with the bike and we have a decent direction for tomorrow. We had a bit of rain in the afternoon so we lost a bit of track time, but that was the same for everybody. I feel like I can ride a bit better tomorrow. There are a few areas where I can improve to make a nice step forward. I’m quite positive. We’ll analyse a few things this evening so we can work on our weak points. I’m looking forward to P3 and focussing on a good qualifying tomorrow.”

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 2^nd – 2’10.079

• Full of confidence from his superb victory in Argentina, Tony felt his way into the day around one of his favourite tracks and ended P1 in 9^th.
• After waiting for the track to dry sufficiently in P2, Tony produced his best lap in the final moments, which was good enough for second, 0.223s off first place.

“We got closer to where we want to be”

“The first day in Austin is done! We’ve been working hard and the feeling improved through the day. We got closer to where we want to be as the day went on. We need to fix a few things so I have better feedback from the bike but we know where to go. We used the soft front tyre in the morning but I didn’t like it that much. I’m quite confident we can do a good job tomorrow. The mood in the team is high and they’re pushing me to keep this run going. The goal is to start in front and be constantly fast in P3. We’ll keep working like this and we believe we can have another good weekend here.”