Tony Arbolino rode to his best qualifying performance of the season, finishing Saturday’s Q2 session in 2^nd place, while Sam Lowes will launch his podium challenge from 6^th.

• Fans turned up at the Sachsenring in their droves on Saturday morning, despite heavy rain falling in the morning. Early showers left the track soaking wet for the 30-minute Moto2 P3.
• As conditions cleared, qualifying was just the second dry session of the weekend for Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino, who qualified on the first two rows under clear skies and in ambient temperatures of 22 degrees.

/// SAM LOWES, 6^th – 1’24.269

• In a fully wet P3 session, the 32-year old started the day in steady fashion, gaining plenty of experience in those conditions by posting 16 laps and finishing 6^th.
• Sam posted two runs in Q2 – the first over 3 laps, the second over 4, with a rear tyre change in between. His quickest came at the start of the second run and the Briton ended up 0.411s off pole. He is hopeful of fighting for the podium tomorrow.

“I just didn’t manage to put everything all together”

“A good result! I’m happy to qualify on the second row after what has been a complicated weekend with the weather. Apart from P1, we haven’t had so many dry laps. I didn’t make the best lap in qualifying as I just didn’t manage to put everything all together. I think I had the potential for the front row though. Anyway, my pace is quite good. I feel like we can improve the bike a bit overnight. I can also improve myself in sector two. I’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight and have a go tomorrow. In a tricky weekend the second row is good enough and we’ll try improve on that in the race.”

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 2^nd – 1’24.127

• Like his team-mate, Tony gained some good wet weather experience in P3, posting 16 laps and the 13^th fastest time.
• In qualifying, Tony replicated his strategy from Friday morning, and set a number of fast times early on. The Italian was on provisional pole position until two minutes to go, when his best lap was bettered by just 0.269s.
• This is the fifth time the Italian has qualified in second position in Moto2, his best qualifying result in the class, and the first time he has done so this year.

“I’m confident with our race pace”

“It was nice to qualify second! Our target coming into today was to qualify on the first two rows at this track. And we did it! I’m confident with our race pace. I think we have a good bike for the full race distance. Like always, I’m going to try and push from the beginning, so let’s see what the strategy will be after that. It’ll just depend on how I feel with the bike. If it’s good, I’ll push. But I’m more than hopeful we can get down to a good rhythm tomorrow and manage the bike and tyres well as the laps go by.”