After a tough Friday and coming through Q1, Tony Arbolino found some confidence at the Circuit of Jerez to qualify a strong 8^th on Saturday at the Circuit of Jerez, while Filip Salac was 14^th.

• Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Tony Arbolino and Filip Salac were limited in their dry running on Saturday as heavy morning rain meant FP2 was run in full wet conditions.
• Thankfully a high wind and brief glimpses of the sun meant the track was all-but-dry for qualifying in the afternoon, with the exception of a few wet patches, particularly at Turn 5.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 8^th – 1’41.759

• Tony showed his wet weather riding skills once again on Saturday morning by setting the 2^nd fastest time of P2, just 0.1s behind pace setter Sergio Garcia.
• The Italian had to navigate his way through Q1 after placing outside the top 14 in Friday’s dry P1 session. He was 1^st in that session by 0.35s, before producing another fine performance in Q2 to qualify 8^th – an improvement of 14 places over yesterday.

“I feel confident so I believe we can reach the goal”

“It was an important day as I was able to taking a few tenths off my fastest lap time. I’m looking forward to finding what we need. We’re still a bit far away from where we want to be but the race is another type of thing. We’ll be focussed on tomorrow and see what it brings. We need to adjust a bit to improve my race pace so I am better prepared. We’ll have to manage the tyres a bit but attack at the same time. It would be good to reach the top positions early on and then see what the rest brings. But anyway, I feel confident and I can see the team is working so hard so I believe we can reach this goal.”

/// FILIP SALAC, 14^th – 1’42.245

• After limited wet weather running through preseason, Filip used the morning P2 session to gain experience aboard Pirelli’s wet tyres. The Czech rider gradually got up to speed and set his fastest time on the last lap of the session.
• The 22-year old automatically qualified for Q2 thanks to his Friday performance but was left to count the cost of a lack of dry track time through the day and the reduced grip after the morning rain.

“We have to keep pushing”

“In the morning we had wet conditions and we weren’t able to try any changes of the bike. It was just about making laps and seeing how the tyres worked in the wet. In qualifying I was honestly expecting more. The lap times were slower but also the grip on the track after the rain was a bit less. I was feeling better on the bike, and I could play a bit. Let’s see tomorrow because MotoGP will put some more rubber on the ground. We have to keep pushing. Tomorrow there will be a drop with the rear tyre, probably after five or six laps. 21 laps will be very long. We’ll see how we manage. We need to adjust the setting a bit to help the tyres. Let’s try to get some more points and confidence on the bike. Thanks to the guys for an amazing job as they changed the tyre in the pit lane very quickly and they’re working very well.”