Tony Arbolino fought for victory until the final corner in an epic Moto2 fight with Pedro Acosta in Texas while Sam Lowes collected important points for 13^th.

• The spectacular Circuit of the Americas hosted the third round of the 2023 Moto2 World Championship in a 16-lap race that got underway at 12.20 local time.
• Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino had to contend with track temperatures of 36 degrees and high gusts of wind around the 5.5km layout.

/// SAM LOWES, 13^th , +20.054 s.

• Starting from 18^th, Sam started steadily and maintained position on the first lap of the race.
• By the sixth lap, Sam found his best rhythm and starting lapping in the 2’10s. From there he was able to close in on and overtake Ai Ogura, Joe Roberts and Dennis Foggia in the second half of the race.
• As a result, Sam came home 13^th, 20s back of the victor, and maintaining his solid start to the season, when he has scored points in each race.

“I didn’t have the best pace today”

“On Friday I felt quite good. But I had a bad Saturday which led to a bad Sunday. The schedule is different this year and we don’t have a warm-up session on Sunday morning. I maybe need to react better to that as it took me too long to get going today after yesterday’s crash. In a 16-lap race, if you start bad and your rhythm is bad, it’s obviously hard to turn it around. I didn’t have the best pace today. I made a few mistakes and hit a few neutrals. I just didn’t feel strong. It was a shame but I didn’t have great speed. Obviously, Tony did a good race and a got good result for the team. We got three points so we can now go to Jerez, a track we’ve already ridden at this year and we know well, and try and improve and keep working.”

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 2^nd , +0.146 s.

• Tony made a sensational start from eighth on the grid to gain five places on the first lap and be in the thick of an exciting three-rider fight for victory.
• The 22-year old took the lead for the first time at Turn 11 on the fifth lap. Once out front, he and Pedro Acosta broke clear of the riders behind to make this a two-way fight.
• Despite briefly losing first place on lap 14, Tony led throughout, and defended brilliantly from several attempted attacks from behind. But he ultimately couldn’t defend a last lap move by Acosta at turn 12. He finished just 0.146s off the win.
• Tony still leads the World Championship with 61 points, 7 ahead of second place.

“I felt as though I had something more than the others”

“Honestly, I’m so happy with the feeling with my team and my crew. I’m also happy with myself because I felt as though I had something more than the others. But today Pedro was fast. That wasn’t a surprise because from P1 he was fast. Now we need to beat him at a different circuit, and that’s what the focus for me is now. Looking ahead to the European rounds, I think we need to start a bit further forward on the grid. Then the race will be a bit easier. That is another target for me to improve in the next race.”