The Italian Grand Prix did not end as expected for Reale Avintia Racing riders Hector Barbera and Loris Baz. Yesterday, both riders had a good feeling during qualifying and they had hoped for a successful race today, but nothing went as planned.
The tyre selection was crucial because the race conditions were completely different to the previous two days. But the bet of Hector Barbera and his team to race with the hardest Michelin compound both front and rear turned out to be wrong and the Spaniard finished the race 14th.
Loris Baz started the day with a big crash in the warm-up session in which his Desmosedici was completely destroyed. The mechanics worked against the clock to get everything ready for the race and the French rider of the Reale Avintia hoped to be able to fight for points. But a strong pain in both arms, besides an intense headache, stopped him from improving during the race.
The MotoGP World Championship now heads straight to Barcelona, where the seventh round of the season will take place next weekend.
“I’m not happy. Overall we had a very good weekend, but the race today has been a disaster. I think we went wrong with our tyre choice and I was the one who wanted to race with the hardest compound. But as it turned out in the race, I had no grip. The two Ducatis on the podium today were using the medium compound front and rear, so it is clear that we have made a bad choice. It’s disappointing that we can’t confirm our progress with a good race result. Every time we have everything working in the right way we seem to hit a wall. Now we have to forget this race and think about Barcelona.”
“It’s been a very difficult day and I’ve crash pretty hard in the warm-up this morning. My mechanics have done a great job to get my bike ready for the race, but the problem is that I had the bike and the engine that I liked less. At the beginning of the race I had a hard time to follow the other riders in acceleration. And after five laps I’ve started to feel bad, with pain in my arms and a strong headache, which is rare for me. I only hope to recover to the maximum for next Friday because I want to give it all at Barcelona.”
