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MotoGP, Baz: the hard tyre? a question...of weight

Barbera: "a technical setback slowed me down". Laverty: "an error on my part caused me to miss out on the podium"

Baz: the hard tyre? a question...of weight

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The best results for Ducati at Brno were scored by the oldest bikes. With the Andreas out of the running, the GP14 said their piece. Loris Baz took the greatest risk, going with two hard tyres, and just missed out on the podium. The fourth place finish is the Frenchman's best result in MotoGP thus far.

“We rode a great race and we took the right decision with the tyre choice - says LorisAs I’m heavier than the rest of the riders, I always have to use harder compounds, and before the race we decided for the hard rear wet tyre, which was perfect. You never know if you took the right decision because you never know if the rain comes back. But we recovered from the rear step by step and with some more laps, we could haven even gone further. I think we needed more experience with this tyre, the bike was a little bit hard and it was difficult to overtake the other riders. But I’m extremely happy and this is the best way to thank the team for the new contract for next year. I was also looking forward to get a good result to dedicate to Luis Salom, and finally we did it”.

Soft tyres for the other Avintia rider Hector Barbera, also in the running for the podium today. In the end the Spaniard had to settle for fifth place, but considering the tyre choice, only Marquez did better.

"After 12 laps, I had a technical problem and I had limited performance from the bike during the last ten laps - he reveals -  I tried to do the maximum to stay at the front, I saved the tyres, I was riding really smoothly, but I finished the race with some difficulties. Anyway, I’m happy, because every race we get closer, and sooner or later, we’ll get the result we deserve."

Eugene LavertyThere is also a celebratory mood in the Aspar garage, thanks to Eugene Laverty's 6th place finish, after a solid race on the hard rear tyre.

"The start was the most difficult - he explains - I lost 4 or 5 positions entering turn 3 and it was so hard to gain places. I could only really overtake when they started to go backwards. I'm angry with myself for the start, because the bike was good for a podium today. I used the hard rear tyre and the guys around me had the soft tyre. Every time I was with them in the corner, the rear grip meant they disappeared. I tried to come back, and every time it happened they held me up -because I couldn't overtake them. I really enjoyed the final laps and started to really push on the last three laps, because I could see Marquez there. In the end, it wasn't about how many laps were left, more the mistake I made at the start which cost us the podium today.”

Not a particularly spectacular race for Danilo Petrucci who, after some disappointing races, hoped to bring home a solid result. The Pramac rider is used to a different level of performance in the wet.

I can't say I'm particularly happy even if it's a fairly good result at the end of the day - comments the 7th placed rider - It was a strange race. We didn't have great pace in the warm-up and for this reason we made more changes. The tyre choice proved key. Perhaps we could have risked going with the hard but we have certain aims and I wanted to reach the Top 10. In the end I finished seventh which isn't bad”.
 

Translated by Heather Watson
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