Tony Arbolino was 9^th and Filip Salac 17^th at the end of Friday at the Red Bull Ring with the pair confident of improvements on qualifying day.

• Even for summertime, conditions were unusually hot and muggy for central Austria on Friday. Track temperatures peaked at 36 degrees during Friday afternoon’s P1 session, 9 degrees higher than the morning’s FP.
• The spectacular, mountainous setting of the Red Bull Ring plays host to the 11^th Moto2 qualifying session of the year on Saturday. P2 gets underway at 925am with qualifying starting at 1345pm.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 9th – 1’34.522

• Kicking on from a promising test in Aragon last week, Tony looked competitive in the morning FP session, as he placed 4^th and posted 5 laps in the 1’34s – only two other riders posted more.
• But Tony didn’t feel as comfortable in the red-hot afternoon temperatures, when he set his fastest time on the second lap of his final run, which left him 0.579s off pace setter Ogura.

“We’ll try to enjoy tomorrow and continue this good feeling”

“It’s been a positive day. We saw that we were fast in the morning but in the afternoon with the hot conditions, which were quite different to the morning, we were struggling a bit. So, we’ll try to make a step tomorrow in the right direction in order to have a better Sunday. It will be so important at this track to start from the front of the grid. We’ll try to do that in qualifying tomorrow, when I’ll be aiming for a place on the first two rows. If we can do that, I’m sure we’ll have a good race. Otherwise, we’ll try to enjoy tomorrow and continue this good feeling that we have at the moment.”

/// FILIP SALAC, 17^th – 1’34.953

• Filip started Friday at one of his favourite circuits well, finishing FP in 12^th. But the Czech rider couldn’t find the optimum feeling aboard the bike in the afternoon P1, when he was 17th, 1s off the fastest time.
• Fighting some pain in his knee after a crash at the Aragon test last week, Filip found it difficult in the afternoon heat to change direction. Yet he’s hopeful Saturday’s cooler conditions will be to his benefit.

“I feel we still have space to improve”

“The first day is done. It wasn’t a bad morning for us. We finished in twelfth position and I came away with the feeling that we still have space to improve. But as soon as Practice 1 started, it was difficult for me to understand the bike well when it was really hot. It was behaving in a completely different way to the morning and I wasn’t sure where the limit was. We have a lot of work to do for tomorrow, in particular in the left corners. I’m struggling there to turn the bike and change direction. It isn’t easy, even to downshift. Anyway, I’m doing my best and tomorrow morning I’m sure it will be colder so we can do a good lap time. Let’s see what we can do in qualifying!”