LOWES LAUNCHES HEROIC FIGHTBACK AT FINAL HOME GP

Sam Lowes recovered from 15th on the 1st lap to score an impressive 7th place in front of his adoring home fans, while Tony Arbolino scored important points for 10th place.

After Storm Antoni battered the Silverstone Circuit on Saturday, conditions were thankfully much better on Sunday with Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders racing under cloudy skies and on a dry track.

The 17-lap race was a tough proposition for the Moto2 field as all riders enjoyed just two dry sessions prior to Sunday to set up their bikes for the challenging 5.9km Silverstone Circuit.

Starting from 9th on the grid, Sam fell back to 15th on the first lap. But from there, the Briton mounted a stirring recovery, setting personal best laps on the 4th, 6th and 9th laps to climb through the top ten.

Sam joined onto the back of an exciting 4-rider fight for 4th on lap 14 and temporarily grabbed 6th on the final circuit, but couldn’t hold the position. He came home 7th, 7s back of the victor.

Sam climbs to 8th in the World Championship with 67 points.

Coming from 4th on the grid, Tony started well and was among an exciting lead group which contained seven riders in the early laps.

But the 23-year old had struggled to find optimal front end feel in the dry on Friday and Tony was unable to maintain his pace. He eventually opted to collect some crucial points, and finished 10th.

This result leaves Tony 2nd in the championship standings with 154 points, 2 behind the leader Pedro Acosta.

SAM LOWES, 7th

“We had some very complicated first laps, which is normal for a Moto2 race. The start was OK but the first laps were difficult so I dropped back a bit. After that it was a really enjoyable race. I had quite good pace and I had fun out there. Of course, I wanted more. I wanted a home podium or a better finish. But in the end, it was a positive ride. I managed to recover some positions, pass some people and make it an exciting race. After the five weeks off that was important. Now we can look forward to the many races that are coming up in a short time to keep the ball rolling. It’s sad this was my last British Grand Prix but from the third lap onwards we did a nice race so this is something I can be happy about. I did quite a slow in-lap after the race as it’s quite hard to say thank you to everyone in the grandstands because of the emotion it gives you. It’s something I’ll miss a lot but I gave it my very best today and we’ll keep trying from here.”

TONY ARBOLINO, 10th

“We saw on Friday that in dry conditions we weren’t feeling so great. We have a test day here at Silverstone tomorrow to discard a few things, as well as test a few new things. We are confident with the crew that we’ll do a good job. We pushed a lot in the race today and I’ll keep on pushing in the months to come. I feel good moments will arrive. We’ve had two races now when I wasn’t on the podium but it is what it is. We need to accept it and work on that. I’m a bit angry now because I was losing in some points that I wasn’t expecting during the race. We are too good in some areas of the set-up. If we can take a bit from where are strong and try to transfer them to where we aren’t then we can improve the package we have.”