Barbera Bemoans Lack Of Grip, Wishes Best For Simon

From watching the practice sessions for the Catalonia GP, it seemed obvious that Stoner would be the man to beat this Sunday and Lorenzo would not be too far behind. The Mallorcan got the best start to get ahead of the Australian, but his lead was conceded on the second lap. The two escaped from the rest of the field, and the action after that focused on whether or not the race would become wet. Light rain sprayed onto sections of the track, provoking a flurry of activity in pit lane as the second bikes were warmed up. In the end, a change of bikes became unnecessary. Stoner took the win, with Lorenzo second and Ben Spies in third.

Héctor Barberá was back on his Ducati for another race in which he worked hard for improvement, although he did not have quite as much to show for his troubles as at Le Mans last time out. The MAPFRE Aspar rider was hit by a lack of rear grip on his bike throughout the weekend, with race day being no different. A few scares made things interesting but not enjoyable for the Spaniard, who focused on bringing the bike home as high up the order as possible. As in the French round, he kept up a tough fight with Capirossi, Abraham and Bautista which ended with a worthy eleventh place. Barberá is eager to get back on track next weekend at Silverstone, where he will attempt to find a solution to a persistent issue.

11th Héctor Barberá:
“It was a hard race, in which we experienced the problems typical of this weekend. The start was more or less ok, but after six laps the bike started to slide and we had a lack of grip on the rear. We have looked at the telemetry, but we still don’t understand why this happened. The moment that I opened the throttle, the rear wheel started to step out and I didn’t have forward motion. Corner entry wasn’t bad on the fast turns, but when I tried to accelerate out it was hard. To be frank, I didn’t have much fun riding today. We will try to make some big changes for the next race. We saw Julito’s crash just before the MotoGP race started and it is a real pity that he is hurt -especially as it wasn’t his fault. I want to send my best wishes to him. I am convinced that he will be back soon, because he is a tough guy.”

Source: Aspar Media