Avintia Racing leaves Spielberg with a bittersweet feeling after the Austrian Gran Prix today. Hector Barbera was on the fourth row after finishing tenth on qualifying yesterday. He did a fantastic start and was sixth on the first corner. But happiness finished soon, and after watching he did a jump-start, Race Direction sanctioned him with a Ride Through. Barbera didn’t see his pit-board and, the signal display lights on his bike, where he can see the messages from Race Direction was not working, so he continued in the race. But finally he got black flagged and was forced to go back to the garage.
Barbera was disappointed, but Baz today was happy after scoring three championship points. Is not too much, but after his injury and the previous bad results, this was a boost of confidence for the Avintia Racing French rider. He was last on the grid and finished 13th, but the most important is that he got his feeling back. In the last laps after a good battle, he passed Tito Rabat.
Next weekend the MotoGP World Championship heads the Czech Republic, where Barbera will have the chance to recoup his error, and Baz will continue building his confidence.
LORIS BAZ #76 / P13
“Yesterday we started to get some feeling back, and also my confidence with the bike. But this morning we tried something in the warm up and it worked quite well. During the race I was focussed to push hard and it worked quite well. But during the first ten laps the front was blocking in every straight braking point, so I was forced to slow my pace. But then I was able to push again because the front tyre was working, and I gave my best to catch Tito. We had a similar pace, but I did less mistakes in the final laps and I was able to pass him. My physical condition is not at 100%, but soon I’ll be fine. The main thing is that we found our way, now we have to keep this momentum in the next races and try to fight with Hector to be in the top 10.”
HECTOR BARBERA #8 / Disqualified
“It was a shame because I didn’t see the ride through. It seems that my bike display had a problem and the white light was not working; I was trying to see that information, but it never came. I neither saw my pit-board until the lap before I stopped, but it was too late. I’m disappointed because I was doing the best race of the season, but now we can’t change it and we must think in the next race. My start was on the limit, I think I didn’t start before the red lights turned off, but maybe I released the clutch a little bit. But if Race Direction watched it, for sure I moved. I want to say sorry to my team, because we did a great job during the weekend, and today we were set to get a good result.”
