Avintia Racing riders Loris Baz and Hector Barbera took a fastastic double top 5 finish for the team in Brno, with two different strategies paying off for both in different ways. Baz, who went for the same hard compound front and rear tyres as eventual winner Cal Crutchlow, saw his pace improve and improve throughout the race until the former WorldSBK rider took the flag in an impressive P4. Barbera, who challenged at the front throughout the race in an impressive display of wet weather control, suffered more towards the end with the softer option tyres – as did those around him – and a mechanical problem that saw him eventually collect a P5 behind his teammate.
For Baz, who is coming back from injury, the result was a welcome injection of both points and confidence as he equalled his best MotoGP™ result from Misano in 2015. For Barbera, the top five sees him pull to within only 5 points of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro at the head of the Independent Teams’ rider championship.
Loris Baz (P4): “We had a great race and we took the right decision with the tyres. Because I weigh so much more than everybody else, I have to use harder tyres and before the race the hard rear seemed to be the right choice for me – but you never know if you’re right because you don’t know if it’s going to rain. We were getting closer and closer but we were missing a bit to be able to get further up. I think we were missing a bit of experience with this tyre, the bike was quite hard and it was difficult to overtake. I’m very happy and this is the best way to thank the team for my renewal. As well, I wanted to have a good race to dedicate it to Luis Salom.”
Hector Barbera (P5): “I’m happy because we had a great race. On lap 12 I had a mechanical problem and I was a bit limited for the further ten laps. I tried to do my best, save the tyres, try to be as smooth as possible, but at the end of the race I had some problems. Anyway, I’m happy because we’re closer every time and sooner or later a great result will come. And I want to congratulate Loris, I’m very happy for him because he’s a great guy and it’s been a tough start to the season for him.”