Reale Avintia Racing riders Hector Barbera and Loris Baz head to Le Mans this weekend for the fifth round of the 2017 MotoGP World Championship. The Grand Prix of France is the home race for Loris Baz, who looks forward to a good result and to celebrate with his home crowd at the legendary French race track. He was not happy the last time out at Jerez, but he improved his feelings with the bike on the Monday test after the race and he is determined to fight for a good result at home.
Le Mans is the home race for Loris, but his Reale Avintia teammate Hector Barbera also arrives at the French circuit highly motivated following a positive one-day-test at Jerez. The Spanish rider recovered his feeling for the front end after modifying his riding position on his Ducati Desmosedici GP16 and he expects to confirm this positive feeling with a good result this weekend.
The 4.185km track has been completely resurfaced over winter, so Friday will be crucial for the riders to evaluate the grip level of the new tarmac and to fine-tune the set-up of the bikes in order to achieve the best possible performance.
“We head to the Grand Prix of France in a positive mood after finding the right feeling with the front during the Jerez test. I think that the track characteristics will suit our bikes even though we have to see how we perform on the new asphalt. The most important thing for me is the step we made to get a better feeling, because this weekend we have the chance to turn things around. The first few races have been really tough and I struggled too much with front end feel, but in Jerez we modified the bike and now I’m able to push harder and ride faster. I think we found the right direction and I hope we can confirm our progress at Le Mans.”
“A home race is always special and it is exciting for me to race in front of the massive crowd coming to this Grand Prix. It is a great feeling. Obviously, I will have more commitments and distractions over the weekend, since all my sponsors will come to Le Mans and I will be very busy shaking hands and talking to supporters and friends. It will be crucial to manage my time over the race weekend and to stay focused. The weather forecast for the weekend is good and the track has been resurfaced, so all references will change. Jerez was not the best race weekend for us, but Le Mans is different and it features hard braking areas, which is my strongest point with this bike. I hope to give my home crowd a reason to celebrate on Sunday.”
