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 14th 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 18th 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.”
