Even though they were starting from the back of the grid, Reale Avintia Racing riders Hector Barbera and Loris Baz were confident ahead of the race at Aragón. Both were keen to recover and score some championship points. But wet track conditions during free practice on Friday meant reduced time to set up their Ducati Desmosedici for the race, and today turned out to be a difficult challenge for both riders.
In the morning’s warm-up session, Spaniard Hector Barbera finished seventh fastest and was confident about his race pace, but lost some places during the first few laps and then was too conservative saving tyres for the last part of the race. When he started to push, it was too late and he finished the race in 18th position.
Loris Baz had a great start from the sixth row of the grid and recovered some positions, but when tyre grip started to drop, he lost many places. He won the battle with Sam Lowes on the last lap, but finished the race 21st and very far from the top.
In three weeks, the MotoGP World Championship resumes at the Twin Ring Motegi, which will be the first race of the triple in Japan, Australia and Malaysia on consecutive weekends.
“This was a strange race because of tyre durability. On the first few laps I was conservative, I was thinking that would be a race like Barcelona were everybody starts strong and then slows down by two seconds per lap on the last laps. I tried to safe my tyres, but then I realized that everybody was using the same strategy, but without decreasing their pace. I am still struggling with the same problems with the bike. When I open the throttle, I have chatter and I can’t feel the limit. I’m only happy about one thing, which is that my pace was really fast on the fourth lap. I hope to feel better in Japan, a track that suits this bike more.”
“It was a tough race and really difficult to manage; everything we tried during the weekend didn’t work and we were not able to improve. We always had the same issues, I lost grip everywhere. I had a good start and I was in the same group with Pol (Espargaró). I tried my best to stay with them, but it was impossible. I started to lose positions and staying on the bike was really tough. It’s a shame because I really wanted to score some points today, there are only four races left and I want to get the best out of them. Today was a disaster from the beginning to the end. We’ll see if things change for Japan where the bike should work better. I just want to enjoy riding these last races in MotoGP with my team.”
