Reale Avintia Racing riders Hector Barbera and Loris Baz left the British Grand Prix with valuable championship points after making a comeback from 16th and 21st place on the grid. The free and qualifying practice sessions had been difficult for the Reale Avintia riders, and this result is a good reward for the hard work of the team throughout the weekend.
Barbera had a problem at the start and lost many places, but then he was able to keep a constant pace that allowed him to catch his teammate and beat him on the last lap to score two points.
Loris Baz made a bet before the race, choosing the softer Michelin rear tyre. This was an advantage on the first few laps, but it made things difficult for the French rider in the last part of the race. He struggled with rear grip and he lost several positions. But he still scored one point after a difficult weekend.
“It was a strange race. At the start the bike moved as I put the first gear in and to avoid jumping the start, I stopped and restarted again. This cost me a lot of positions on the first lap and I was almost last. But then I started to recover and pass some riders. I lost too much time trying to get past Smith and Miller, and it was a pity what happened at the start as my pace today was fast enough to fight for a top ten finish. Now we have to focus on this base set up, because it is clear that I’m faster like that. In Misano we need to make another step forward.”
“It was a difficult race but at the end it was better than we expected. It was a risk to use the soft rear tyre, but it was the tyre with which I was more comfortable and it also allowed me to attack during the first laps of the race. Then I just tried to finish the race as the bike was sliding a lot in the righthand corners. When Abraham passed me, I tried to stay with him, but it was impossible, because with two laps to go the tyre was finished. On the last lap Hector caught me and I had nothing left to defend my position. I scored one point and after all the problems during the weekend, this was not so bad. I hope that we can return to the level from the last races at Misano.”
