Sunny but breezy conditions and impressively consistent lap times were the feature of productive opening day of action for the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team at the Motorland Aragon track in Spain today.

• Italian Arbolino was in the hunt for the top six in both 40-minute Free Practice sessions today, while Senna Agius had a host of established Moto2 stars behind him as he fought close to the top 20 in just his third World Championship appearance.
• The third and final Free Practice session gets underway tomorrow at 1055am local ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s 21-lap race.

/// TONY ARBOLINO 5^th, 1:53.154, 39 laps

• Arbolino was one of the busiest riders on track this morning with 21 laps completed and a personal best time of 1:53.538 in low grip conditions placed him seventh on the leaderboard.
• A sharp increase in track temperature from 30 to 43 degrees couldn’t stop Arbolino from slicing nearly 0.4s off his lap time, which moved him two places up the rankings into a superb fifth position on the combined leaderboard.

“My pace is really strong and I did a lot of laps on my own”

“Today we were able to try something with the front setting of the bike and it worked as we hoped it would and improved my feeling. We also played with the geometry to improve the balance of the bike and we’ve made a good step in that area as well, so it has been a positive day. The big question mark for the remainder of the weekend is going to be the choice of the rear tyre for the race but we have a lot of data to analyse to help us understand what the best option will be. One big plus of today is my pace is really strong but I did a lot of laps on my own. I preferred to focus on making the time and finding my rhythm on my own with no reference and this is something I will concentrate more on in the future.”

/// SENNA AGIUS: 24^th , 1:54.641, 31 laps

• Replacing injured Sam Lowes once again, Agius put previous experience of the 5.077km Motorland Aragon track to good use when he finished in an excellent 21^st at the end of 16 laps completed this morning.
• There was more progress made by the Australian teenager this afternoon and at the end of the he was positioned 24^th overall with a fastest time of 1:54.641.

“I feel there is plenty more to come”

“The main priority for today was to improve the front feeling of the bike and I feel we did a good job. The conditions changed quite a lot between the morning and afternoon but I was still able set decent times in both sessions. There are some points of the track where I’m strong and I just need to link everything together because I feel there is plenty more to come. I know this track but it is my first time here on a Moto2 bike and that makes it challenging but I feel we’ve started the weekend with a good base to build on.”