The uncertainty presented by light rain almost got MAPFRE Aspar rider Héctor Barberá in a twist, but the Spaniard cleared his head to recover from a difficult start. The opening three laps saw a lack of confidence and a small mistake, but from then on he kept up his strong form from practice. Barberá took off from ninth on the grid and lost four places on lap one, but his calmness and determination took him back up the order and he equaled his grid position before taking the chequered flag. It was a positive finish to one of his better weekends of the season, and the MotoGP rider is sure that the team is going in the right direction.
Héctor Barberá:
"First, I want to say that this was a rather good weekend for us overall. As far as the race itself, yesterday we inspected the track in order to prepare for the start and the braking points to use. I got off the line well and was going perfectly up until the first corner, where I didn't brake confidently on account of it spitting with rain -so I locked up. I had to make a save on the next turn and was then passed by a number of riders. From then on I had two slow laps in which I was maybe thinking too much, second guessing whether it would rain more or not. This was the turning point of the race, starting with doubts in my mind, because later on I rode quickly and comfortably. I gave one-hundred percent and rode the same times that I had done in practice, just as we had planned. It is a pity that we didn't start strongly, and this is something that I need to improve in future. I am happy for having done what I needed to do, and we have finished the weekend with another good result."
MAPFRE Aspar press release.
