After a difficult first day of Friday and dedicated to trying to find the best possible settings, both for the dry and for the wet, Loris Baz and the Avintia Racing team had raised the bar on Saturday, by qualifying for the tenth place on the starting grid. Loris was therefore hoping for rain or a wet track, conditions which are more successful for him currently, in order to be able to shine on the Sepang International Circuit for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The rain arrived a few moments after the finish of the Moto2 race, thus delaying the start of hostilities in the MotoGP category. The start is finally given at 15:20 p.m. (local time) for a distance reduced to 19 laps.
Author of a cautious start, the Frenchman then began an incredible rise in the peloton, to be 5th after the eleventh lap. Following various falls in front and behind him, Loris then found himself in fourth position, a place he managed to keep until the last four laps before the checkered flag.
Loris finally falls behind his teammate, but he takes an excellent fifth position. After several difficult events and numerous injuries, the Frenchman is more than delighted to finish the overseas tour by scoring numerous points which allow him to climb ahead of Tito Rabat, in 20th position in the provisional ranking.
Loris is now focusing on the next and last race which will take place in Valencia in two weeks.
" I am really happy. When we saw the rain coming, we were happy, we did the rain dance in the box!
At the start of the race, the track was really wet, but the grip is very good with the new surface. I made a cautious start. I'm still very cautious at this point in the race, after the two big crashes I suffered at Mugello and Silverstone. Over the next few laps, I quickly progressed in the standings and managed to overtake Maverick Viñales.
From then on, there was a lot less water on the track and my tires started to heat up, just like what happened during practice on Saturday. The situation was becoming more delicate and this allowed Hector Barbera to return to contact. He overtook me and I then secured fifth place. It might have been better for me if the race started a few minutes earlier so that the track would be wetter at the end of the race.
Finishing 4th or 5th doesn't change much, and it's a result that does a lot of good. The leading group was going very fast, but with a more incisive start, I probably could have kept up with Jorge Lorenzo's pace.
In the dry, I'm not yet fully confident. If we quickly do the math, I think that after my injuries, I am still missing a lot of time on the dry track compared to the others. With the new regulations and the new tires, I am not yet able to quickly find the settings on a dry track.
I'm really looking forward to starting the 2017 season with the test in Valencia, followed by another in Jerez on the Ducati GP15. »
