Rain Impedes Mugello Day 1 Progress For Barbera

The wishes of the MotoGP riders for a dry Grand Prix after two wet weekends at Silverstone and Assen were not met today as a sunny Tuscan morning turned to rain at the recently resurfaced Mugello. Marco Simoncelli led the way in a dry opening session but intermittent showers in the afternoon interrupted the work of the entire field, with many riders opting to stay in the pits and for the second successive Grand Prix the second free practice session was virtually useless.

MAPFRE Aspar rider Héctor Barberá knew that he had to make the most of every minute on track regardless of the weather after making major changes to his bike set-up in search of more comfort and confidence. Comparing the data he gathered on track the team were able to make comparisons to previous races and winter testing but were denied the opportunity to complete more tests in the afternoon when they only managed ten minutes on track.

14th Héctor Barberá 1.51.153 (26 laps):
“This morning’s session was quite positive. The objective was to compare the setting we have used over the past two races to what we used at the preseason tests in Malaysia and in the end we went for a lower ride height, which is what we had in the winter. Now we will focus on working with this set-up and completing a lot of laps to get a consistent rhythm without changing things. Maybe we have tried to be too precise with the set-up in recent races and it has put us off. The important thing is that we are more clear, we are back on the right path and little by little we will improve from here. We didn’t get to test anything this afternoon so hopefully we can have sunshine and more productivity tomorrow.”

Source: Aspar Media