Despite struggling with the front feeling of his Kalex, Tony Arbolino posted a solid performance on qualifying day at the British Grand Prix and will start Sunday’s race from eleventh.

• Fabulous conditions greeted the Moto2 field on Saturday at the world-famous Silverstone Circuit with qualifying taking place under clear skies and in ambient temperatures of 22 degrees. After Sam Lowes dislocated his left shoulder in a violent highside on Friday morning, Tony Arbolino was the only Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider on track.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 11th – 2’04.899

• The 22-year old had a steady start to Saturday as he set the 15th fastest time in FP3, 1.2s from Jake Dixon’s quickest lap. Tony still automatically qualified for Q2 thanks to his personal best from Friday.
• Arbolino then opted to ride alone throughout Q2, relying on his own lines and braking markers. The Italian was poised to qualify on the third row until the final minute, when he lost two further positions. His final time was 0.796s off pole position.

“I’m still struggling with the front feeling”

“I gave it my all! I was completely alone during qualifying. This didn’t help around this big circuit but I’m happy with my performance. My crew are giving their maximum so the bike is ready for the race. We were on the third row until the last minute, 0.5s from the first row. We need to understand why and check the details on the data, so we can try and gain time for tomorrow. I want to feel ready and at 100% and work hard to achieve a good result. I’m still struggling with the front feeling. We need to keep working on that. I expect a strange race. I see two or three riders with really good pace. But after that I don’t see many riders with strong rhythm. So, everything is possible tomorrow. Now I’ll prepare my body and my mind to try to do the best race possible.”