Like many other teams, the Pons HP40 team had a difficult weekend on the demanding Austin track. After free sessions and complicated qualifying, only Lorenzo Baldassarri managed to do well in the race, while Héctor Barberá did not manage to get into the points.
Until now, the Austin circuit had failed to Lorenzo Baldassarri, whether in Moto3 or Moto2. Since his arrival in the World Cup in 2013, he has never done better than twenty-third, and has three clean results.
The Italian therefore did not arrive in the United States very confidently at the start of the week, and seemed relieved on Sunday evening: “We are finally finishing this complicated weekend. I knew I would have difficulty on this circuit, considering other years. »
However, with his experience and newfound confidence this year, he was able to forget his complicated free practice and his poor qualifying to gain seven places in the race and thus finish tenth, his best result on this circuit: “I was still able to do a good race, coming back up and with a good pace. This is the reward for the work put in throughout the weekend. »
Even if after a podium and a fourth place, Baldassarri's objective is to always compete for the podium, he nevertheless returns satisfied: “It's obviously not the result we wanted to bring back, but the important thing is to have taken points. I would like to thank my team because they gave their best in each session. »
For its part, Héctor Barbera had a good start to the weekend, placing in the top 15 then in the top 10 on Friday. Unfortunately the Spaniard was unable to continue this good pace, and qualified twentieth to finally finish the race in eighteenth position.
After an encouraging Grand Prix in Qatar, those in Argentina and the United States did not go as planned, but Barberá remains in good spirits: “The weekend was quite complicated. The important thing is to remember the positive and that's what I'm going to do. »
He goes even further, recognizing his mistakes, and being aware that a change is necessary before attacking the fourth Grand Prix of the season in Jerez: “Perhaps I didn't work in the best way and that penalized us since we started far back on the grid and without racing pace. It's time to change things, to start from scratch, and Jerez could be the ideal place. It's a circuit we've already practiced on, it went well and we were fast. You have to continue to work tirelessly to arrive prepared on Sunday, because that's what counts. »
