Barbera satisfied with weekend at Aragon despite mechanical problem in the race

Midday riding for the MotoGP premier class took place at Motorland for the first time this Sunday, although the location was the only novelty as far as the race script went. Once again there was a runaway winner from pole position, this time Ducati rider Casey Stoner. He broke away on the opening laps and was unopposed by Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, denied victory at their home circuit. The Australian continued his great weekend form by taking his first win of 2010, ahead of Pedrosa and teammate Nicky Hayden -who passed Lorenzo on the final lap.

The podium trophies were presented by the Spanish king, present at the inaugural race at the Motorland circuit. The upcoming triple flyaway for the MotoGP World Championship begins in two week’s time.

Héctor Barberá was ready for anything at the Gran Premio de Aragón, following a very positive start to the weekend. The Spaniard wanted to take an outstanding result on home soil to cap the visit to Motorland, but had unexpected difficulties in the early going. A power delivery issue with his Ducati left him fighting to stay upright on the bike, and his on-the-run reparations proved difficult to maintain. He took the flag in eleventh, although he can take much useful information from his latest home race in order to mount another assault on the top ten.

11th Héctor Barberá: “I had a good start and was able to gain a place as a result. At the beginning of lap three I found that I was unable to open the throttle, so my bike slid out. Then I adjusted things and I ended up with too much power. I was a little too close to the limit and was losing the bike on every turn, which led to my tyre degrading and me sliding more. I switched back to the first setting because of this. It worked right up until the final five or six laps, but I was clinging on by the time I crossed the line. The temperature change today perhaps threw us off a bit, but we really need to address the power delivery issue. The result wasn’t great, but we can be satisfied with the weekend as a whole because we took a step forward with the fine tuning of the bike. We were at least able to learn some useful things ahead of the next race.”

Source: Paginas Amarillas Aspar Team