Australia’s Senna Agius was left disappointed with his Moto2 World Championship outing at Jerez but is determined to learn from his fill-in opportunity with the Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP team as the beginning of the 2023 European Moto2 Championship beckons.

Agius replacement for the injured Darryn Binder over the weekend in what was his first competitive outing with the team, and he concluded practice in P23, 1.323s from the lead.

A crash on his first flying lap in qualifying one saw Agius line up 28th on the grid, before reaching P21 in the 21-lap race on Sunday. While the end result didn’t match his career-best finish in the world championship to date (P9 at Valencia last year as a fill-in for Sam Lowes at the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team), the emerging talent leaves the Spanish circuit hungry to take what he has learned and apply it to his European Championship commitments this season.

“To be honest I’m struggling to smile about the race,” Agius said. “I didn’t have anything in the beginning and didn’t have much at the end. Not much raw speed but I want to learn from this.

“Coming into a different championship there was a lot to get used to and I managed as best I could. Maybe when I have more experience I can handle that better and do a better job in this paddock. I’ll take what I learnt here back to CEV next week and want to keep improving. A big thanks to the whole team for allowing me to step in.”

Agius experienced a breakout 2022 campaign – his first on a Moto2 bike – and finished second in the European Championship, with two race wins and nine podium finishes to his credit as part of the Promo Racing team.

He made the switch to the Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP Junior Team for the 2023 season with firm ambitions of capturing the European title, as the first round of this year’s European Moto2 Championship to is commence this weekend in Estoril, Portugal.