Tony Arbolino was pushed wide at the first turn of a shortened Moto2 race at Mugello, meaning he had to fight back to 16^th, while Filip Salac crashed out of 13^th.

• Despite weather forecasts predicting a lunchtime shower of rain, conditions were perfect at the fabulous Mugello circuit for the seventh Moto2 race of 2024.
• The outing was reduced from 19 laps to 12 due to a red flag incident during the Moto3 race and the start time was delayed 15 minutes to 12:30 local time.
• An attendance of 81,627 showed up on Sunday to watch the seventh Moto2 race of the year at the iconic Mugello Circuit, just 40 minutes outside the Tuscan city of Florence.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 16th

• Tony started well from 16^th on the grid, but was pushed wide into the race’s first corner, dropping him back to 25^th.
• The Italian then mounted a fightback to gain some points but his progress was slowed when asked to drop a position on lap 7 for overtaking under a yellow flag. It meant Tony was limited as he continued to struggle with a lack of front-end feel.
• The result keeps Tony 13^th in the World Championship with 33 points.

 “The bike was taking me for a ride rather than me riding the bike”                                                                                              

“We just didn’t extract the maximum from the package this weekend. We tried something different in the race but again I didn’t feel comfortable and even more so in the first laps. The bike was taking me for a ride rather than me riding the bike. That’s what I missed the most, as I couldn’t be smooth. Now it’s time to make a reset and analyse what happened so we can be better at the next race. We need to look at times like on the first day in Qatar, when I had so much confidence with the front, and try and get that feeling back. At the moment I have zero confidence there. I couldn’t even force it today which is why I lapped at the same rhythm from the first lap to the end. Again, I had good pace when the tyres dropped but I don’t have a good feeling with new tyres. We need to work on that so I can start in front. As a consequence of that the race will be better.”

/// FILIP SALAC, DNF

• Starting 19^th, Filip enjoyed a fantastic getaway and gained nine positions on the first lap to sit 10^th, but was pushed wide by another rider at Turn 1 starting the lap 2 and broke the brake adjuster when trying to take avoiding action.
• The Czech rider was then struggling with the front brake, which caused a crash when sat 13^th on lap 4. Filip managed to rejoin the race briefly before he eventually retired in the pits.
• Filip now sits 18^th in the World Championship on 14 points.

“I broke the front brake adjuster with my hand and I couldn’t adjust it!

“I don’t have much to say. We all have bad days and this was one of them. I had an amazing start and passed nine people on the first lap. It was the first time this year we had a good set-up with used tyres. I was really trusting that we’d be competitive. We were riding around ninth on the first lap but starting the second another rider passed me so hard. I had to do a fast motion to avoid a crash and I broke the front brake adjuster with my hand. As soon as I was in the slipstream of other riders the front brake overheated and went softer. That meant I was having some problems stopping the bike and I couldn’t adjust it. Then unfortunately I had a crash because of this. I did my best but, unfortunately, we had some bad luck. Let’s take the positive points from this weekend and then move onto the next one.”