Reale Avintia Racing riders Hector Barbera and Loris Baz finished the last day of MotoGP official testing at the Phillip Island circuit today. After two difficult days were the lack of feeling with the front end became a nightmare for the riders, this afternoon both riders found the right direction with the set up of their bikes.
Hector Barbera did 83 laps today, with a personal best of 1’29.791, 16th today and 17th in the combined time sheets, and just 0.543s from Andrea Dovisioso, the fastest Ducati at this test.
Also Loris Baz found the way to improve today at Phillip Island. The 24-year-old French, has been working really hard during the last three days to get feeling with the front of his Desmosedici GP15, and today, he finally found the right direction.
Action will resume in Qatar next month for Barbera and Baz, with the last test of the preseason at Losail International Circuit from March 10th.
“The most positive after three days is that today we finally found the way. With two hours to go we touched the key and I began to feel good on the bike and I was faster, but the best is that my feeling is back. I have been very overwhelmed because this happened in Malaysia and every time since I got on this bike. We have finally found the solution! I started to feel good straight away, having fun riding the bike, but this was only for two hours and in the end we didn’t have any more tyres to try a flying lap. At the end I was able to improve a lot with a seven-lap-tyre, and I think that with fresh tyres it was possible to lap in 29 lows. So in the end we are happy. Now it is time to prepare well before the next test in Qatar.”
“It has been a difficult three days but today we found something. We have improved little by little to lap in 29 and we are not so far, but I am happy because we have found the way, and it has not been easy. Overall I leave Phillip Island satisfied, because we tried a lot of things and the team did a great job. My crew chief, Paolo did the right things and in the end of the day we leave with a clear direction. I think that I could go even faster with a new tyre at the end, so I’m happy, much more than I was until today at lunch time.”
