Reale Avintia Racing riders Loris Baz and Hector Barbera will start tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix from the 17th and 19th place of the grid.
The second day of practice, with two more free sessions followed by qualifying, took place in mixed conditions, with a wet and cold track in the morning and full dry conditions for qualifying this afternoon.
Baz and Barbera made a step forward in dry conditions. As their positions on the time sheets don’t reflect their real pace, both riders are hopeful to recover positions in the race and continue to aim at a top ten result. If the forecast is right and it rains tomorrow, Barbera is more optimistic than Baz, as the Spaniard was eighth fastest in this morning’s wet free practice session. On the other hand, if the warm-up session is wet, Baz hopes to improve his feeling and get ready for the race.
The MotoGP race of the Australian Grand Prix is scheduled later than usual and will be started at 16:00 local time (07:00 CET).
“We have improved a lot since yesterday, but this morning it rained and we had to do all the work in FP4. In the end, we just would have needed one more lap to take another step in the Q1. All Ducati riders are struggling here and except for ‘Dovi’, it’s tough for everybody. We will see what the weather will be like in the race tomorrow. If it is dry, we have options to do well, if it is rainingm, there is much more left to do and we need to work in the warm-up to improve. We have been struggling to find our usual speed in the wet since the race in Misano and today’s wet session in the morning didn’t make a difference.”
“Today we worked a bit better. The conditions in the morning have been quite particular, but in the afternoon we improved a lot. I think if the track is dry in the race, we can get a good result. We made many changes on the bike and all have been positive, only that my fastest lap maybe fell a bit short of our expectations. But my rhythm has improved a lot and I should be able to make a good recovery during the race. I hope to enjoy riding and above all I pray for the wind to stay calm, because this is my main handicap here. If it rains I think we can do well, as we have shown in FP3. “
