Barbera Fights Grip Troubles For Creditable 10th At Brno

The MotoGP race at Brno looked to have a similar script to practice in the Czech Republic. Pedrosa was fastest for the entire weekend, and wanted to convert that into an early escape from Lorenzo in the opening stages of the race. The story was turned on its head, however, when Pedrosa crashed out, two laps in. Stoner took over from his teammate in the lead of the race, and provided a breakaway soon thereafter. He was out on his own just a couple of laps after assuming the lead. Lorenzo, Dovizioso and Simoncelli fought it out to decide the remaining podium spots, but the positions were settled fairly early on and each of the three rode almost in isolation. Stoner took another win, whilst Lorenzo’s only finishing fourth means that the Australian now has a 32 point advantage in the overall standings.

“Besides developing a tiny detail, it’s down to me to make the comeback a possibility tomorrow.” Those were the words of Héctor Barberá after qualifying in Brno. He was to start from thirteenth on the grid, following a tough return from the summer break in which changes to his Ducati were not having the desired effect. The MAPFRE Aspar man gave his all on race day to take a creditable tenth place. This was despite suffering from some big issues with his front tyre, lacking grip for almost all of the 22 laps in the Czech Republic. The Spaniard had to keep his cool on the last pair of laps, fighting to stave off two riders who had caught up with him and were hungry to overtake. All eyes now are on Indianapolis, and another chance for Héctor Barberá to have a solid race.

10th Héctor Barberá:
“It was a pretty difficult race, as I had problems with the front end five laps in and they wouldn’t go away. Between the previous race and this one we worked hard on the front, but we still have a few things to resolve. Today it felt like I was losing the front when I hit the brakes on certain corners. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the tyre was gradually degrading and making it tougher to brake hard every time. I tried to make the most of things at the start and push whilst I still had some confidence. Normally I do things the opposite way and end up riding faster as the race goes on. A few riders who had been behind me caught up with two laps to go, so I had to turn my focus to defending their attacks and shutting all the doors. This little battle at the end was fun, and I didn’t lose any places from it. We made some changes just to try something new, but they didn´t work on well. That’s why we will be back to our normal settings for Indianapolis.”

Source: Aspar Media