Tony Arbolino is ‘confident’ in his ability to compete in Qatar

After completing official test in Portimao P11, second-year Moto2 racer Tony Arbolino is ‘confident’ about being competitive at next month’s season opening in Qatar.

Tony Arbolino believes a strong performance at the 2022 Moto2 season opening in Qatar next weekend is a definite possibility.

The Italian, who had completed his maiden official test for Elf Marc VDS earlier in the week, ranked 11th in the three-day Portimao test, 1.066s behind current Moto3 world champion Pedro Acosta.

While Arbolino had a strong and effective test, teammate Sam Lowes was forced to withdraw owing to tendinitis in his left hand on the penultimate day.

Despite the fact that Lowes is trying to be ready for the Qatar Grand Prix in just ten days, Arbolino might lead the team to victory, as he did on the final day of testing.

“We have worked incredibly hard over these three days in Portimao, and we made a lot of changes to the bike to find our ideal base set-up heading to the first race in Qatar,” said Arbolino. 

“The crew really had to work so hard but I’m sure this will be rewarded when we go racing.

“We have understood a lot of things about our package at this test and we also found solutions to some of our problems, so we go to Qatar optimistic that we can be competitive. 

“If we continue to work in the way we have done during winter testing then we can achieve some great results together this season. My crew and I go to Qatar fully motivated to show our best potential in the first race.”

While the Moto2 class is expected to be as challenging as ever in 2022, Arbolino has a good opportunity to reach his best result yet, which would be his first podium in the intermediate class.

Arbolino had four top ten results as a rookie, the best of which was fourth at Le Mans.

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