Expectations were high for Avintia Racing ahead of the Czech Republic Grand Prix. Hector Barbera showed his speed as early as Friday and confirmed his grat shape yesterday, securing a second row grid position with the fifth fastest lap time. Loris Baz was 17th and on the sixth row of the grid, but with rain forecasted for the race, he was quite optimistic. The forecast proved to be true and the Frenchman was third fastest in the Sunday morning warm-up. The rain then stopped just before the MotoGP 22-lap-race, which made the tyre choice crucial.
Hector Barbera made a good start and when he got the pace, he began to overtake riders and moved up to second place. But ten laps before the end, he felt something was not working well on his bike. Although there were vibrations and a lack of power, he managed to finish the race in fifth position, but it would have been possible to get an even better result. Starting from the rear of the grid, Baz waited until a dry line appeared on the track, and after recovering many positions, he passed his teammate to secure a fantastic fourth place. This result confirms that Avintia Racing took the right decision signing a new contract with Baz for 2017. It’s also a big boost for his confidence ahead of the last seven rounds of the championship.
Loris Baz and Hector Barbera gave Avintia Racing the best team result in MotoGP, and they also were the best Ducati riders at Brno, celebrating a dream weekend for the Spanish team.
LORIS BAZ #76 P4
“We rode a great race and we took the right decision with the tyre choice. As I’m heavier than the rest of the riders, I always have to use harder compounds, and before the race we decided for the hard rear wet tyre, which was perfect. You never know if you took the right decision because you never know if the rain comes back. But we recovered from the rear step by step and with some more laps, we could haven even gone further. I think we needed more experience with this tyre, the bike was a little bit hard and it was difficult to overtake the other riders. But I’m extremely happy and this is the best way to thank the team for the new contract for next year. I was also looking forward to get a good result to dedicate to Luis Salom, and finally we did it”.
HÉCTOR BARBERÁ #8 P5
“I’m happy because we did a good race. After 12 laps, I had a technical problem and I had limited performance from the bike during the last ten laps. I tried to do the maximum to stay at the front, I saved the tyres, I was riding really smoothly, but I finished the race with some difficulties. Anyway, I’m happy, because every race we get closer, and sooner or later, we’ll get the result we deserve. I want to say a big thank you to the team, because they made this possible. Big congratulations to Loris, I’m really happy for him, because he’s a good rider and an even better person, and he needed this result. To be honest, the season started to turn really difficult for him. I always support him, I encourage him, but when you get inside a hole, the best way to get out is like he did, with a good result”.
