The 2016 MotoGP World Championship kicked off late in the afternoon at the Losail International Circuit. Only one free practice session was on the program today for Loris Baz and the Avintia Racing team.
Although the victim of technical and electronic problems during the session, the Haut-Savoyard still managed to complete two fast laps to finish just 1.3 seconds behind the best time. At the end of this day, Loris is confident for the rest of the weekend and hopes to be able to climb into the top ten tomorrow to ideally place himself on the starting grid on Sunday evening.
“The first session was very positive despite the stress of the first Grand Prix of the season. However, we had some problems. On my first bike I had a problem with the brake guard and on my second bike I had a problem with an exhaust pipe. Coming back to the first, it was the electronics that had a problem. I went back to the box and we resolved it. I then completed two fast laps on the hard tire. I finished close to the group in front.
We were immediately in the rhythm. Last season, even on my best day, I didn't finish 1.3 seconds behind the reference time. If that had been the case, we would have brought out the bottle of champagne. Today, having had problems, I managed to finish 13th, which is more than positive.
We will try to do our best over the next few days. The track is much dirtier than during the test and we lack grip. We will have to see if the track evolves and if we manage to regain our sensations from the test. Then we will prepare for the race as best we can. Obviously, if we go straight to Q2 that would be great, but that's not our main goal. We will see tomorrow what happens. »
