Month: July 2016

Avintia Racing rider Hector Barbera was very optimistic for today’s Catalan Gran Prix after his fantastic fourth place in qualifying yesterday. The start was not great and he lost some places during the first lap, but when he started to find his pace, the rear tyre started to lose grip and he had to fight with his bike in every corner until the end of the race. Barbera crossed the line tenth, but afterwards was penalized with one place because he cut the new chicane on the last lap. The positive result of this race is that the Spaniard is still eight in the World Championship standings after seven rounds.

Michele Pirro, who was replacing Loris Baz in Barcelona after the injuries sustained by the French rider at Mugello, suffered the same grip problems as Barbera during the race. Ducati’s test rider finished the race 15th, but he thinks that working a little bit more with the electronics the GP14.2 has the potential to fight for the ‘Top 10’ in every race.

Hector Barbera will have a one day test tomorrow in Barcelona and he hopes to find something that will help him to battle for better results in the next races.

 

HÉCTOR BARBERÁ #8 / @HectorBarbera P11

“This is not the result I was expecting today after what we achieved yesterday. The race was very difficult because of the tyres and after six laps I had no grip at all, the bike was spinning a lot and the traction control was working everywhere. In these conditions the bike was not working like yesterday and I had to slow my pace. The lack of grip was increasing lap by lap and the bike became unrideable. I was patient and I tried my best to get the bike back to the garage, but I was more than five seconds slower compared with yesterday. We’ll try to find something in the test we have tomorrow, but I think that we need some help from Michelin.”

 

MICHELE PIRRO #51 / @pirrorider P15

“The race was really difficult because I had no grip and the rear was spinning a lot. With this problem, it was impossible to get a better result. I also lost some time in the first few laps and with the lack of grip the race became more difficult. We knew that it would be difficult, but I expected a better result today. I want to thank the team for this race again, we worked really well during the weekend. Overall I think that working more on the electronics, the package has the potential for ‘Top 10’ finishes in every race.”

Copyright Reale Avintia Racing. Fotografías de libre reproducción en prensa escrita y web. Para cualquier otro uso contactar con el propietario, Avintia Racing.

Avintia Racing rider Hector Barbera took a fantastic sixth place in a crazy interrupted race at Assen. It was the first time in 86 years the Dutch TT was held on Sunday, and also the 250th race in the MotoGP era. But the race will be remembered for it’s final outcome.

The race, initially planned with a distance of 26 laps, was red-flagged due to torrential rain with 12 laps to go. In the first part, things went quite bad for Barbera and Pirro. Hector was 14th when the red flag came out, while Michele crashed on the last lap. Luckily he could get his bike back to the garage.

In the second part of the race, Barbera got the pace step by step to cross the chequered flag in sixth place behind Andrea Iannone. With this result, the Avintia Racing rider climbs one place, and with one race left until the half-way mark of the season, he is seventh in the World Championship classification. He also continues to lead the Ducati ranking.

Michele Pirro crashed again with five laps to go, whilst fighting for the top 10. Overall it was a really difficult weekend for the Ducati factory test rider.

 

HÉCTOR BARBERÁ #8 / @HectorBarbera P6

“I’m really happy with this result because the first race was a disaster. I decided to use the harder rain compound for the rear and it had no grip at all, with the bike spinning even on the straight. Just pointing to the corners, the bike was sliding and I did not enjoy riding in this conditions. In the second race, we used the softer rain tyre and the bike changed completely. But the difference was so big that it took me some laps to get used to it. After such a difficult weekend, with mechanical issues and two crashes, this sixth place is a reward for everybody in the team. I want to thank my team for their support during the weekend, because they react quickly to the problems and they push me to keep my motivation high.”

 

MICHELE PIRRO #51 / @pirrorider DNF

“This weekend was really difficult for me, I think one of the hardest of my career. But this is racing. I fell sorry for the team, because we had the chance to fight for the seventh place in the second race, but I crashed. I had no warning and the limit was so narrow that I couldn’t save it. I feel bad for the team because today we could have achieved a good result. These two races were a great experience for me, but to be honest I hoped to get better results. Thanks to Avintia for this opportunity, I hope it will go better next time.”

Copyright Reale Avintia Racing. Fotografías de libre reproducción en prensa escrita y web. Para cualquier otro uso contactar con el propietario, Avintia Racing.