Barbera enjoys Misano circuit

The MotoGP World Championship returned to Europe this afternoon following its transatlantic trip to Indianapolis, the riders back on track for the first practice session of the San Marino Grand Prix. Local riders are expected to put up a strong fight on Italian soil but today it was the Spaniard Dani Pedrosa who dominated, with his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo third fastest and home favourites Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi second and fourth respectively.

Héctor Barberá was satisfied with his first session here on the Ducati, the Spaniard making a strong start to figure amongst the top five on the time sheets in the opening twenty minutes. Hector worked throughout practice on improving his engine management system and progressively improved his times to clock a 1’36.293 with his final lap, enough for eleventh place on the overnight time sheets.

11th Héctor Barberá 1.36.293 (29 laps): “Misano is a circuit I always seem to have taken well to and today was the same. I enjoyed myself during the first session and I’m happy with how we’ve started. It is a small circuit and in the corner exits the front wheel was lifting so we had to modify the power delivery. We took a little power away, adjusted the traction control and I also worked on my riding. We didn’t need to make any adjustments to the geometry of the bike today because it worked quite well as it was. I finished eleventh, a second and a half off the top, and I’m happy with that but we want to close the gap tomorrow. I think we’ve worked well and tomorrow we’ll try to continue in the same way. I know I am capable of a good result here and I’ll do everything possible to achieve it.”

Source: Aspar Ducati Team