Reale Avintia Racing rider Loris Baz will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Argentina from the third row of the grid after clocking the ninth fastest time in today’s wet qualifying session. He secured a place in Q2 thanks to his great lap time from yesterday and the 24 year-old French got the maximum out of this opportunity. Baz is ready for whatever the weather will bring for the 25-lap-race tomorrow. He was strong in dry and wet conditions, which he also proved this morning in FP3, where he was fast and consistant on a dry track.
It was not an easy day for his teammate in Reale Avintia Racing, Hector Barbera. With some work left to do on the set-up of his Ducati Desmosedici GP16, the Spaniard was not able to male the decisive step in FP3. In wet conditions during Q1, he lacked the right feeling riding his bike. Barbera will start the race from the 21st place of the grid, but he is confident of improving during the race.
“I’m happy, but more so with my performance in FP3 this morning, because I was able to set a fast pace riding with Marquez. In Q2 I was disappointed, because I’m always fast in these conditions, but at the end the track was not wet enough for rain tyres and due to my weight, the front tyre was destroyed. To be honest, I have to be happy with the third row, because I have a strong pace and if I can get a good start, I think it will be possible to go with the front runners. We will see what we can do in the race tomorrow.”
“Today was a difficult day. In FP3 we had too many things to test but we had not much time, as the rain came after just five laps. In FP4 the conditions were strange, it was not full wet and the grip was not too bad. But in Q1 we started with a different bike for my first exit and then we chose the wrong tyre with the bike I liked. I don’t want to make excuses, but we are far from finding the base set-up of this bike, and this makes it really difficult to find the right feeling. We will see what happens tomorrow. As always, I’ll give my maximum to get the best possible result.”
