Ducati Corse’s stand-in for the weekend Hector Barbera guided his Desmosedici GP16 to eighth on the grid for tomorrow’s 24-lap Japanese Grand Prix, the Spaniard hailing Saturday as a much more ‘positive day’ than Friday.
Barbera ended his first day as the injured Andrea Iannone’s replacement down in 14th after spending both practice sessions acclimatising to the latest-spec Desmosedici. Happy with how the day went, he was even more enthusiastic about his work after qualifying.
In FP3, Barbera found himself fourth on the time sheets and just a few hundredths of a second shy of teammate Andrea Dovizioso in third. The Spaniard focussed his efforts in FP4 on used-tyre running, saying afterwards that he got to ‘know the bike better’.
Confident heading into qualifying, he was unable to really unleash his potential on the GP16 as he couldn’t quite string together a lap. Barbera took the chequered flag in eight spot after clocking a 1m44.980, putting him just over a second off of pole man Valentino Rossi.
Obviously hoping for more, Barbera is nonetheless satisfied with his starting position as he feels he can race well from the third row. The Spaniard now looks towards improving his bike’s set-up further in morning warm up tomorrow and grow even more comfortable on the GP16.
“Today was a positive day and I felt much better than yesterday on the Desmosedici GP. I only need to put in a lot more mileage on the bike to get used to its characteristics,” explained Barbera.
“In FP4 we only worked with used tyres and I started to get to know the bike better. We made a big step forward, but in Q2 I was unable to put a perfect lap together. In any case I’m eighth on the grid and I start from the third row, but it’s a position from where you can do a good race. For tomorrow I think we can still improve the setup a bit and I’m sure I can also improve my feeling with the bike.”
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