Month: July 2017

After a four-week break, the MotoGP World Championship returns to action this weekend with the Czech Grand Prix. Reale Avintia Racing riders Hector Barbera and Loris Baz head to the Brno circuit in good shape and look forward to start the second half of the season.

There were no holidays for Hector Barbera, who was training every single day since the last race. He did a lot of cycling, motocross and also spent some days riding a jet ski. The Spanish Reale Avintia rider heads to the Czech Republic very motivated and hopes to start the second part of the championship with a strong result.

Loris Baz made the best possible use of the summer break to solve his arm pump problems. The issues with his right arm had affected his performance in the first half of the season, but are now a thing of the past. After surgery and a short rehab period, Baz confirmed the success of the treatment riding his Ducati Panigale Superbike on a track day at Valencia circuit, and also rode his motocross bike to put his right arm to the test. Like his teammate Barbera, Baz expects to be fighting for the ‘Top 10’ this weekend at Brno. The odds are in favour of the Reale Avintia riders, who both rode a superb race last year finishing in fourth and fifth position.

“I had no holidays. I’ve been training every day to get ready for the second half of the season. I improved in all areas and I head to Brno completely ready and eager to race. I hope to reward my team and sponsors with a good result for all their support, because the first part of the year has been a nightmare and nothing went as we expected. I have no doubt that in the next races we will change this situation and turn things around. I like Brno and it is a good track for the Ducati, so I’ll give my best to make sure I keep my seat.”

“The holidays were good, but too long! But I’m happy because we fixed the arm pump problems and I had enough time to recover. I’ve been testing my arm and now I have no pain any more. I was able to do some laps in Valencia with the Panigale and I also did some days of motocross and supermoto to make sure the arm is ready… and everything was perfect. I’m looking forward to start the second part of the season and see how the arm reacts riding my bike, because riding the MotoGP bike will be the real test. In the first races, arm pump has been an issue, so now without this problem and if we keep working in the same line, we can achieve great results in the second half of the season.”

Reale Avintia Racing rider Loris Baz underwent successful arm pump surgery today in his right arm. The operation lasted 40 minutes and was carried out by Dr. Olivier Dufour at the Hospital d’Aix en Provence, France.

Loris Baz has been struggling with this problem in his right arm from the first race of the season in Qatar, and although initially doctors attributed the problem to a tendon, it was finally confirmed that the problem was the famous arm pump or chronic exertional compartment syndrome, an increasingly common ailment in MotoGP riders who have to deal with bikes that exceed 260 HP. Race after race the pain was more and finally Loris and the team made the decision to undergo surgery to solve the problem.

With one month summer break, July was the most appropriate date in the calendar to complete the surgery. Now Baz has 29 days to recover before getting back on the bike on Friday August 4, when action will resume with Czech Grand Prix’s free practice sessions.

“I had surgery on arm pump, something very common among MotoGP riders. To be honest I never had problems with my arms, but this year the bike is very physical, perhaps the most physical bike I’ve ever rode in my life. The problems began in Qatar, this was the first time I noticed it and prevented me from fighting with Lorenzo until the end of the race due to the pain. In Argentina it was a little less, but in Jerez, Le Mans hurt, and in Mugello the pain was very strong. At the begining we thought it might be tendonitis, but in the end we found it to be compartment syndrome. After talking to several doctors like Dr. Mir or Dr. Charte, everyone agreed that surgery was needed. I tried to find an specialist and Randy De Puniet recommended me to Dr. Dufour. Now I will be quiet week and then I will start to train with the bike and in the gym to get back to action in Brno at 100%”.

The changing weather conditions continued throughout the German Grand Prix weekend. In practice, the MotoGP riders had to deal with dry and wet sessions, so the riders were ready to race in any condition.

The Reale Avintia Racing riders were fast in all wet sessions, with Hector Barbera leading the pack on Friday and Loris Baz fighting for Q2 in qualifying on Saturday. But although the rain was forecasted for today’s race, finally all 30 laps took place in dry conditions.

Hector Barbera only completed one third of the race. The Spanish rider did jump the start and was penalized with a Ride Through. But he didn’t see the messages in his bike dashboard and the pit boards of his team and the Race Direction. Finally he was black-flagged and disqualified.

Loris Baz was 14^th on the grid and he gained some places in the opening laps. The French rider was confident to score some points today, but after some laps he struggled with rear grip and was not able to show the same pace of practice. He finished the race in 19^th place.

The MotoGP World Championship takes a summer break now and the action will resume in August with the Czech Grand Prix in Brno.

“I really don’t know what happened in the race. It was the same problem we had all weekend. The first laps were quite good, the feeling with the new tyres was perfect and I was able to overtake some riders and I was in an interesting group. But after ten laps, I lost all rear grip and the feeling was like riding with wet tyres. In just four turns, I was losing 1.5s and I was having big moments on every lap. I decided to calm down and try to finish the race, and in the final laps I still managed to do quite well in the righthand corners with some grip, but the problem is that here you only have three of them… This is not the result I was hoping for in this race, but I think that the first half of the season was quite good overall. I’m happy with the job we have done so far and now I will get surgery in my right arm to come back stronger for the second half of the championship.”

“I went to Race Direction to watch the images, because I was convinced that I didn’t jump the start. And I was right, the problem is that at this track the start is uphill and I moved the bike with the red lights on, and that is why they have penalised me. In the first laps I was fighting in a big group and I couldn’t see the messages on my dashboard and also the pit boards for Ride Through, so I was black-flagged. It is a shame because today I had good feeling with the bike and I think that it was possible to gain some positions and score some good points. But when things are not going well, everything gets tough. We have to keep optimistic, because we have one month to train hard and change this situation in the second part of the season.”

Reale Avintia Racing rider Loris Baz missed progressing through to the Q2 session by 0.284s and he will start tomorrow’s German Grand Prix in 14^th place from the fifth row of the grid. It started to rain in the final minutes of FP4 and the qualifying practice sessions took place in wet conditions, but despite the rain, the Q1 and Q2 session were impressively fast. The grip levels of the Sachsenring’s new tarmac are incredibly high and it was difficult for the riders to find the limits. But anyway, the 24-year-old French rider was happy with his performance in the dry this morning, in one of the most difficult circuits for him in the calendar.

Following his domination in Friday’s wet session, Hector Barbera was confident for today’s qualifying session. But the Spanish Reale Avintia Racing rider made some mistakes during the 15 minutes qualifying session and will start the race from 18^th place of the grid. Barbera is confident and if it rains, he is confident about his chances to recover in the race and score some valuable championship points.

“It was really close and I missed Q2 for a little margin. It was the same in Assen. But here it is quite tricky in wet conditions because there is so much grip that it is difficult for me to find the limit and perhaps I should have trtied to follow someone from the beginning. But overall, the day was good and I am happy because we have been closer in wet conditions and on a dry track we have improved a lot in FP4. This is positive on a circuit that has always been very complicated for me. Today we made a step forward and we have closed in on the pace of the fastest riders. Let’s see if we can finish in the points tomorrow if it’s dry. It it rains, we will take some risks to try to score some good points.”

“It was a shame because I didn’t play my cards well in qualifying. Maybe I was so eager after yesterday’s performance in the wet that I made a lot of mistakes. I feel really good in these conditions and today I lost my chance. But the bike is working really well and if it rains in the race everything is possible, because a race distance over 30 laps is not the same than a 15 minutes session. Everything is very tight and I have to recover in the race. I want to finish the first half of the season with a good taste. But we have to wait and see what the weather will bring tomorrow.”