Barbera hoping for good base setting in Sepang

The next stop for the MotoGP World Championship circus is Malaysia, meaning a Pacific trip south from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian Grand Prix takes place this Sunday at the Sepang circuit, for several years the longest track on the calendar until the return of Silverstone earlier this season. It remains the hottest and most humid, however, and as such it is still one of the biggest challenges the riders face all season. Following an injury to Dani Pedrosa in free practice at Motegi, the MotoGP World Champion could be crowned in the fifteenth round of the season, with Jorge Lorenzo poised.

Páginas Amarillas Aspar rider Héctor Barberá is looking forward to Sepang after a difficult race in Japan and is hoping to take advantage of four days of testing at this circuit during the winter. The fact this is not his first visit to the track with his Ducati, as is the case at the majority of others, should work in his favour and the Spaniard is hopeful of resuming the positive form he was showing before Japan.

Héctor Barberá: “Maybe Sepang is more like Aragon than Motegi and we had a much more productive weekend at Motorland than we did in Japan so I think the base setting of the bike could be good for this one. The characteristics of Sepang mean that you don’t have to put as much wieght onto the rear of the bike, which was my biggest problem last weekend. I want to be optimistic and think that things will be good for us this weekend and that we will overcome the problems we had at Motegi. Sepang is usually good for me – it is a track I have ridden on before with the Ducati, and I think that could work in my favour. I am going to give it everything I have from Friday to return to the level we were at before Japan.”

Source: Paginas Amarillas Aspar Team