Hector Barbera and Loris Baz will start tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix from the fifth row of the grid after finishing 13th and 15th in qualifying today at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
The Spaniard crashed during FP4 and went out for qualifying with his second bike. In his first attempt, he was close to make the top two and in the second exit he missed Q2 by just one tenth of a second. His Reale Avintia teammate Loris Baz finished just 0.026s from Barbera and will start the race from the same row on the grid.
The MotoGP riders enjoyed another sunny and warm day at Misano, but rain is forecasted for tomorrow’s race. If the forecast is right, Barbera and Baz expect to fight for the top ten. If it’s dry, they hope to score some championship points.
“We have been close but we missed Q2 by just one tenth to finish in ‘12+1’ place. In FP4 I crashed at a point where I was losing a little bit of time this weekend. I tried to ride this turn in another way, but I touched the kerb and crashed. But nevertheless, we are not so bad considering that we still have the same problems from the beginning of the season, which is a lot of chatter when braking into the corners. Tomorrow I hope to make a good race and if it doesn´t rain, my goal is to be in the top ten. But if it rains, we can dream of something more”.
“In Q1 I hoped to be closer to the front, but in my second time attack I didn’t find any reference and had to do the lap on my own. Overall the day has gone quite well and I think we have a good pace for the race. In the fastest turn we lose too much, because this bike was designed to go with winglets and now there is not enough weight on the front. I had some big moments at that point during the weekend and to be honest, it is scary to lose the front when you go at 300 km/h. Now we wait what the weather will be tomorrow because if it rains, we can do well”.
