Tony Arbolino enjoyed a strong Saturday at the Red Bull Ring to qualify 4^th for Sunday’s race, although a 3-place grid penalty means he’ll start 7^th. Team-mate Filip Salac was 16^th.

• The threatening clouds that hung over the picturesque Red Bull Ring early on Saturday morning soon dispersed, giving way to clear skies and ambient temperatures of 30 degrees during Moto2 qualifying.
• Saturday’s Q2 session was red flagged after 5 minutes due to a Turn 2 crash for Manuel Gonzalez. Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Tony Arbolino and Filip Salac then took part in a 9-minute dash to post their best possible qualifying laps.
• In the afternoon Tony Arbolino was handed a three-place grid penalty as the FIM Stewards deemed him to be riding slowly on the racing line in P2. This drops him from 4^th to 7^th on Sunday’s grid.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 4^th – 1’34.093

• Tony used the first half of the morning P2 session to sample a setting with Sunday’s 23-lap race in mind. A late run of fast laps saw the Italian jump up to third in the session.
• The Italian was in the mix for the front row from the first minutes of Q2. He posted his best time on the second lap of his second run, which just missed a place in the top 3 by 0.1s.

“I’m sure we can have a competitive race”

“This was another positive day. We just proved that the speed we had yesterday was no fluke! Unfortunately, we got the 3-place grid penalty, which means we’ll start from P7. But it will be a long, long race tomorrow. The key will be to keep calm, keep a strong rhythm going from the start and I’m sure we can have a competitive race. As usual I’ll be aiming for a good start, a strong first lap and from there I’ll give it my all!”

/// FILIP SALAC, 16th – 1’34.476

• After a tough Friday afternoon, where he struggled in the hot, muggy conditions, Filip immediately felt more at home in P2. His 1’33.624 initially broke the lap record, and was good enough to finish the session in 2nd.
• The Czech rider couldn’t quite replicate that speed in Q2 however. The red flag came just as he was on course to set one of the session’s fastest laps. And Filip couldn’t quite improve in the restart. Despite placing 16^th, he was just 0.6s off Celestino Vietti’s pole time.

“We have good pace and it will be an important day for us on Sunday”

“It was a good morning for us. We were able to set the second fastest lap time and I was feeling very good with the bike. But much like yesterday in the hot conditions that we had in qualifying we struggled a bit. We were a bit unlucky with the red flag because I had a red sector 3 before the stoppage. After that I was riding alone and wasn’t able to improve. Anyway, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race. We have good pace and it will be an important day for us on Sunday.”