Reale Avintia Racing riders Loris Baz and Hector Barbera finished the first day in Argentina with mixed feelings. In the morning session Barbera ended with the eighth fastest time and was confident of improving in the afternoon, whilst Baz suffered an electronic issue on one of his bikes and finished way back in the timesheets.
Things went the opposite way in the afternoon session, with Reale Avintia Racing French rider Baz moving up through the ranks. After a significant improvement with the rear hard Michelin tyre, he went into soft tyre time attack mode and got the sixth fastest lap time of the day. For Barbera, the last session was quite difficult and he finished 15th overall in the combined standings. The opening day at Termas de Río Hondo has really tight with top 15 riders in less than a second.
“I had a problem with one of my bikes this morning, but it was not a big issue. Also, the first session here is only useful to clean the track, so it was not a drama. In the afternoon we tried some different settings and all of them were better, so I was able to set a good pace on hard tyres, and finally I went out with the rear soft and with Maverick’s reference I did a really good lap. I think it was possible to go even faster if I had used the hard front, but I’m still very happy. I have improved every time I got on track, and this is most important. I enjoy riding the bike and although I have an upset stomach, the day was really positive.”
“I’m not happy. In the morning I went more or less okay, but this afternoon we didn’t program the session in the right way and we tried a wrong set-up that was useless. I don’t have too much to say, the only positive thing today was that even like this, I was able to set a decent lap time on my own and we are not so far from the fastest rider. We have a clear idea for tomorrow and my target will be to get into the top 10 in FP3 and go straight to Q2. I’ll try, and if I can’t, I’m sure that we will be really close, because my feeling is good and the Ducatis are working really well at this track.”
