Reale Avintia Racing riders Loris Baz and Hector Barbera finished the first Grand Prix of the season scoring championship points. Loris Baz did a great start from 14th place of the grid and he was eleventh with just three laps to go. But arm-pump problems on his right forearm prevented him from defending his position when Jorge Lorenzo arrived. This race was not easy for Baz, who just before the start received the news of the death of fellow French rider Adrien Protat. And after the loss of Anthony Delhalle earlier this month it was not easy for Baz.
It was not easy race for Hector Barbera either, because he came to Qatar only 20 days after his collarbone injury, and the lack of testing and kilometres at Losail forced him to start the race with an unknown set up. But the Reale Avintia Racing Spanish rider did a great comeback starting from the 20th to finish 13th and with two points tonight in Qatar.
“It was not an easy race, but at the end the result was good for us. I started the season in the points and, the most important for me is that I crossed the finish line 20 seconds behind the leader, and this is the best we have done since I’m racing with this team. I had an arm-pump problem in my right forearm from the beginning of the race. We have to find out what happened because maybe it was the brake that was too hard, or maybe that I was losing the front almost in every corner, but in the final laps I was not able to fight with Lorenzo as I could not even open full gas on the straight. But overall I’m happy, after all the delays and cancellations this weekend, we started the season with a good result, that I want to dedicate to Anthony and Adrien.”
“It was a difficult weekend. I arrived here only twenty days after my collarbone injury and I had not enough strength in my left arm. I tried to set up the bike in the best way, but we had no time; the conditions have been changing during the weekend and yesterday we lost one track day because of the rain. Finally we had two practice sessions, warm-up and we started the race with a set up completely new for me because we didn’t test it before. The team did a great job during the weekend, they have been patient and they understood that I was not in my best form, but finally we were able to get some points. I want to thank all the people that made this possible. Now I have to work hard and think ahead to Argentina, where I hope to do better.”
