Avintia Racing rider Hector Barbera was very optimistic for today’s Catalan Gran Prix after his fantastic fourth place in qualifying yesterday. The start was not great and he lost some places during the first lap, but when he started to find his pace, the rear tyre started to lose grip and he had to fight with his bike in every corner until the end of the race. Barbera crossed the line tenth, but afterwards was penalized with one place because he cut the new chicane on the last lap. The positive result of this race is that the Spaniard is still eight in the World Championship standings after seven rounds.
Michele Pirro, who was replacing Loris Baz in Barcelona after the injuries sustained by the French rider at Mugello, suffered the same grip problems as Barbera during the race. Ducati’s test rider finished the race 15th, but he thinks that working a little bit more with the electronics the GP14.2 has the potential to fight for the ‘Top 10’ in every race.
Hector Barbera will have a one day test tomorrow in Barcelona and he hopes to find something that will help him to battle for better results in the next races.
HÉCTOR BARBERÁ #8 / @HectorBarbera P11
“This is not the result I was expecting today after what we achieved yesterday. The race was very difficult because of the tyres and after six laps I had no grip at all, the bike was spinning a lot and the traction control was working everywhere. In these conditions the bike was not working like yesterday and I had to slow my pace. The lack of grip was increasing lap by lap and the bike became unrideable. I was patient and I tried my best to get the bike back to the garage, but I was more than five seconds slower compared with yesterday. We’ll try to find something in the test we have tomorrow, but I think that we need some help from Michelin.”
MICHELE PIRRO #51 / @pirrorider P15
“The race was really difficult because I had no grip and the rear was spinning a lot. With this problem, it was impossible to get a better result. I also lost some time in the first few laps and with the lack of grip the race became more difficult. We knew that it would be difficult, but I expected a better result today. I want to thank the team for this race again, we worked really well during the weekend. Overall I think that working more on the electronics, the package has the potential for ‘Top 10’ finishes in every race.”
