The next stop on the 2023 Moto2 World Championship tour takes the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team to the spectacular scenery of Austria’s Styrian mountains and the high-speed undulation of the Spielberg track for round 10 of 20.

• Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino come to Austria determined to get back into podium contention off the back of a positive one-day test Silverstone, which immediately followed a double top 10 finish in the British Grand Prix.
• Practice action this weekend gets underway at 950am local time on Friday, with lights out for the 23-lap race on Sunday at 1215pm.

/// SAM LOWES

• A brilliant recovery from 15^th to seventh in his home round at Silverstone keeps the Briton right in the heart of the battle for the top three in this year’s World Championship, with Lowes climbing to eighth in the overall rankings with nine rounds completed.
• Lowes has made eight appearances previously at the stop and go Spielberg track and twice he has finished in fourth position in 2020 and 2021.
• The 32-year-old was unfortunately absent from last year’s Austrian round while he began a long recovery from a serious left shoulder injury suffered at Silverstone.

“Hopefully we can be in the mix for the podium”

“I feel we gained some decent momentum last time out at Silverstone, so it is a nice feeling to go back to Austria and try and build on that. It is going to be an interesting weekend for me because unfortunately last year I couldn’t ride, and the track changed quite a bit in the first sector. I’m curious to try out the layout and get to grips with it but I’ve had some good results in Austria in the past and hopefully we can be in the mix for the podium once again.”

/// TONY ARBOLINO

• The Italian’s full focus this weekend is on returning to the lead in the World Championship, with Arbolino only two points off the top of the rankings with 11 races remaining in 2023.
• The 23-year-old is a big fan of Spielberg’s hard braking and hard acceleration zones, and he finished second in the 2019 Moto3 race and was runner-up again in the Styrian round in 2020, which was part of an Austrian double header during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Arbolino’s best in three races in Austria in Moto2 is a 13^th place in his rookie season in 2021 after he fell out of ninth position one year ago.

“We need a big result”

“This is a very important weekend for me because I feel it is the time to attack and be fighting again for the podium. We need a big result after a couple of difficult races and I’m fully confident and convinced that we can do it. Austria is a track I really like, and I’ve always been fast there in the past, so let’s go there and push to the absolute maximum.”