Tony Arbolino produced another heroic performance in Thailand on Saturday by qualifying 4^th despite feeling some discomfort from his Friday incidents, while Filip Salac was much improved in 6^th.

• The cloud cover that hung over the Chang International Circuit around lunchtime cleared just in time for Moto2 qualifying on Saturday as Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Tony Arbolino and Filip Salac rode in ambient temperatures of 30 degrees and 66% humidity.
• Tony qualified 4^th on Saturday but was handed a 3-place grid penalty for an incident in Friday morning’s FP session. That means he’ll start from 7^th on the grid, and Filip from 5^th.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 4^th – 1’34.866

• Despite feeling some discomfort in his left ankle after a crash and unfortunate collision with another rider on Friday morning, Tony shaved 0.1s off his personal best time in Practice 2 to end the session 11^th.
• Using crutches to move to and from his bike, the Italian then posted a brilliant time on his 6^th and final lap of Q2 to place 4^th, just 0.138s of Ai Ogura’s pole position effort.

“I’ll fight like a lion tomorrow”

“It was a tough day here in Thailand! With the pain we are always suffering when we’re out on track. For sure it’s going to be a long, long race for me tomorrow but I will try to push so hard and just be the best version of myself. Today in qualifying I had a few moments in Sector 2, where I was taking some risks. But I was recovering in Sector 3. I think our final lap time could have been even faster but it is what it is. We have to accept it. We’ll be starting from P7 but I don’t care about that. I’ll fight like a lion tomorrow and give it my absolute all!”

/// FILIP SALAC, 6^th – 1’34.871

• After changes were made to his bike on Friday afternoon to improve rear grip, Filip started Saturday promisingly, and improved his personal best time by 0.6s to end Practice 2 in 14^th place.
• Although he was held up by a number of competitors riding slowly ahead during one flying lap in Q2, the Czech rider set an excellent time on his penultimate lap to secure his best qualifying result of 2024 by 3 places.

“I’m pretty confident we can fight toward the front”

“It was a good day in Thailand! The guys did a good change with the set-up for today. From the first laps this morning I was feeling very good on the bike and in the end we got our best qualifying result of the season. I know it’ll be a tough race tomorrow because of the heat and humidity and everybody is really fast here. But we have a good starting position for the race, and I’m pretty confident we can fight toward the front.”