Barbera satisified after first day at Sachsenring

After just a week’s break following three back-to-back European rounds the MotoGP World Championship was back in action today at Sachsenring. Whilst the smaller categories head into their summer break after this weekend, the premier-class teams and riders travel directly to the United States on Sunday night. There is business to take care of before that however as Valentino Rossi makes his return to competitive action in Germany after a six-week absence through injury. Dani Pedrosa set the pace but it was a good day for Ducati, with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden lapping second and third fastest.

Páginas Amarillas Aspar rider Héctor Barberá was also pleased with his performance in today’s opening session and enjoyed riding his Ducati around the dramatic drops and rises of Sachsenring. The Spaniard worked hard throughout the session and made a notable improvement on his 24th lap to clock a 1’23.599, his fastest of the day. It was enough for fifteenth place on the time sheets but with just a second separating him from top spot Héctor is happy and confident that if he can improve in the final two sectors of the track he can put on a highly competitive display on Sunday.

15th Héctor Barberá 1.23.599 (31 laps): “I spent today trying new things, like we did in Barcelona, and I can say that I’m happy that we’ve taken a step forward. I’m only a second off the fastest time and that makes me think we can challenge for our best result yet. Before Barcelona I had dropped off the pace a little but it seems like we’ve found our way again. I feel comfortable on the bike again and I’m enjoying myself out on the track – I just think it’s a matter of a little time before our speed really improves. Things came more easily today than they have been doing recently and little by little we are improving my feeling with the bike, which is really important. This is a small track but it is fun. I am only losing a couple of tenths to the top guys in the first couple of sectors but we have room for improvement in the last two.”

Source: Team Aspar