Reale Avintia Racing rider Hector Barbera dominated the second free practice session in wet conditions this afternoon at the resurfaced Sachsenring circuit. The Spaniard was on top throughout the session and in his last run improved his lap times in each lap to finish first with 0.038s advantage over Marc Marquez, who has been second.
In the morning in dry conditions, his feeling had been quite good also, but Barberá hadn’t been able to put a fast lap together and he was 14th in the combined time sheets at the end of the day, just 0.737s adrift of the fastest pace set by world championship leader Andrea Dovizioso.
For Loris Baz, the wet session in the afternoon also was better than FP1. In dry conditions, he struggled to find good feelings with the bike and the tyres and he finished 22nd. In the wet afternoon, he managed to go much faster to finish 13th. But the Reale Avintia Racing French rider of is not so happy with his dry settings and he hopes to improve his feelings tomorrow.
“We started well because we had the opportunity to ride in the dry and in the wet and the sensations have been good in both conditions. We were seven tenths of a second behind in the dry and we finished way back in the time sheets, but once again, all the times are very close together. Tomorrow, more rain is expected and it was important to put in a fast lap on a dry tarmac to make it to QP2 directly, but it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe I didn’t take enough risks or I didn’t find the right moment to attack, but I am still happy with what we achieved. On a wet track in the afternoon, I immediately had a good feeling. I was within the top five all the time and in the end I was fastest. I really like the new tarmac, the grip is good in wet and in dry conditions. Tomorrow I will pull all stops trying to qualify as well as possible for the race!”
“Things went quite well today. It was a bit difficult this morning, because it’s always a bit tough for me to ride fast on this circuit and I didn’t manage to string a good lap together. Looking at my ideal time, I would have been much higher up in the time sheets and therefore I think we have to try and make the bike easier to ride and if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, we will be much better. In the afternoon, my feeling with the bike was much better. The grip on the new asphalt is incredible, much better than at Assen. My feeling was good and since I didn’t want to take too many risks this afternoon, I still have something up my sleeves if it rains again tomorrow!”
