Pedro Acosta and Albert Arenas crash out at Le Mans.

The French Grand Prix ended with misfortune for the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders. Albert Arenas was unable to finish after being involved in a multiple crash that caused a red flag. Pedro Acosta also crashed when in second place after the restart.

Acosta faced the French Grand Prix race from fifth on the grid, and held his position off the line. After the race was restarted at a reduced length of 14 laps, he moved his way up to second place and maintained a good pace, achieving a new lap record at the French circuit. With 9 laps to go, he crashed at Turn 7 when closing the gap to the leader, which prevented him from finishing the French Grand Prix despite a positive feeling about the weekend. Acosta has 74 points in the standings, in which he is second.

Arenas took a step forward over the weekend at Le Mans. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider started the race focused on moving up the order after starting from the fourth row of the grid, but after the first few laps he was part of a big crash at Turn 5 that forced the race to be red flagged. He escaped unhurt, but unfortunately was unable to take part in the restart. Arenas occupies eleventh place in the overall standings with 27 points.

Despite the crashes, both riders are unhurt and are already turning their focus to next month, in which a three-race run begins with the Italian Grand Prix on June 9-11th.

Results (Race)
1. Tony Arbolino (Kalex) 22:34.233
2. Filip Salac (Kalex) +0.620
3. Alonso Lopez (Boscoscuro) +1.537
4. Celestino Vietti (Kalex) +2.193
5. Jake Dixon (Kalex) +3.041
DNF. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
DNF. Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo)

Moto2 World Championship Standing 2023
1. Tony Arbolino (Kalex) 99 points
2. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 74 points
3. Alonso Lopez (Boscoscuro) 61 points
4. Filip Salac (Kalex) 60 points
5. Aron Canet (Kalex) 52 points
11. Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 27 points

Moto2 Teams World Championship Standing 2023
1. Elf Marc VDS Racing Team 143 points
2. Red Bull KTM Ajo 101 points
3. Lightech SpeedUp 89 points
4. QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 82 points
5. Pons Wegow Los40 75 points

Aki Ajo – Team  Manager

“After a race in which both of our riders crashed it’s a little bit of an occasion to forget. On the other hand, even after a difficult weekend we need to analyse everything very deeply and see what we can learn from this weekend. In Practice our pace and speed with Pedro and Albert was good, but unfortunately it wasn’t our luckiest day in the race. We have a really positive mindset and are looking forward to the next GP at Mugello.”

#37 PEDRO ACOSTA

“I consider the weekend to have been a good one, because we are seeing that we are competitive in all conditions, in QP and at any circuit. I want to apologise to the team because I think that in the race we could have at least been on the podium. They deserved that result, but mistakes can be made and today it was our turn to make them. We will take away the positive part of the weekend and learn from everything. Now we have a three-week break, so it’s time to train a bit with the team, understand some things and look for something that makes us a little faster.”

#75 ALBERT ARENAS

“It has been a difficult day. I made a good start and I gained places, but the crash was strange and everything happened very quickly. It’s a pity because we had done a good job over the weekend and it was time to make it count in the race. Now we have to pick ourselves up and use these weeks to regroup and come back stronger at Mugello. It’s a shame for the team, but that’s racing.”