Filip Salac produced a strong performance to place 7^th in qualifying at the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday, while Tony Arbolino was 15^th.

• After a cold start to the day in Catalonia, when P2 took place in ambient temperatures of just 11 degrees, the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya gradually warmed up for qualifying with track temperatures rising to 18 degrees.
• Sunday will be the 20^th and final race of the 2024 Moto2 season with Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Tony Arbolino and Filip Salac competing over 21 laps. The race will get underway at 12.15 local time.

/// TONY ARBOLINO, 15^th – 1’43.547

• After running a set-up that wasn’t to his liking on Friday afternoon, Tony reverted to a previous base setting for Saturday and felt comfortable in P2, when he set the 8^th fastest time.
• Yet it proved to be a complicated Q2 session for the Italian. After seeing his early lap times cancelled for a string of yellow flags, Tony had another two further times ruled out in the session’s second half, before his final effort put him 15^th.

“I think our rhythm is quite competitive”

“I’m a bit disappointed as qualifying didn’t go to plan. I felt we had the potential for more than 15^th place. But it was a complicated session with quite a few yellow flags. These things happen and we need to accept the situation. Anyway, in terms of feeling on the bike it was quite normal today – I wasn’t feeling amazing but it wasn’t terrible either. I think our rhythm is quite competitive and I’m sure that with a good start we can be there fighting for the top positions. I’m hopeful we can end the season on a positive note and like always, I’ll give it my all!”

/// FILIP SALAC, 7^th – 1’42.604

• Having identified rear tyre degradation as a weakness on Friday, Filip and his crew tried a few settings tweaks to ensure tyre life was better in Saturday morning’s P2. The Czech rider ended the morning with the 9^th fastest time.
• Despite yellow flags being shown for a number of crashes in Q2, Filip set two competitive times in the 1’42s. The second of those was enough for 7^th and with a few changes to help him in the final sector, he is confident of a strong result on Sunday.

“I’m sure we can end the season in a good way”a

“It was an OK qualifying. I enjoyed it and we had good speed. But I still feel we’re missing a little bit in the last sector to be as competitive as the fastest guys. We need to improve that part of the track for tomorrow. We made good progress today overall and I think seventh place is a good spot to start the race. I’m feeling quite comfortable and I’m sure we can end the season in a good way here in Barcelona.”