Loris Baz's teammate now seems to be adapting well to his Desmosedici GP16, despite his lack of wings. And this does not only have disadvantages, as proven by the best top speed of the day for Hector with 352,2 km/h in the Mugello straight, 1141 meters long.
In the first free session, Barbera achieved an excellent fifth time in 1'47.708, 0.314 behind the official GP17 of Andrea Dovizioso. He ranked third among the Ducati riders, just ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Danilo Petrucci.
In the second, he took the sixth performance in 1'47.710, exactly two thousandths of his morning time, which was remarkable in terms of consistency. In the general classification, this earned him eighth position, 0.363 behind the leader Cal Crutchlow, but only six hundredths of Maverick Vinales fifth, of Johann zarco sixth, and three hundredths from Dani Pedrosa.
He preceded Alvaro Bautista by two hundredths and Jorge Lorenzo by four. With such tight gaps (eight hundredths between fifth and tenth), the third free practice session promises to be very competitive, and direct qualification for Q2 will be decided by very little.
According to Hector Barbera, “I'm very happy because it's been a long time since we had such a good start to a weekend. At the Jerez test we saw the light, at Le Mans we couldn't confirm, but the test day we did in Barcelona before arriving here was the key.
“The first five GPs were the five most difficult races of my life, because I know that I had the means to be at the front and that the performance of my bike was high, but I did not have a good feeling and it It was very difficult.
“This bike was born to ride with wings, that's why we worked to add more downforce and the results are visible. It was clear that I hadn't forgotten how to drive and my team has been very supportive and it seems like we've already found the way. Tomorrow I have to seize the moment, try to get through to Q2 and give everything to get the best possible result. »
Results of the two free sessions combined:
1 C.CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda HONDA 1'47.365
2 A.DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'47.394 to 0.029
3 J.FOLGER GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'47.543 at 0.178
4 M.PIRRO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'47.595 at 0.230
5 M.VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'47.669 to 0.304
6 ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'47.674 to 0.309
7 D.PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'47.699 to 0.334
8 H.BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 1'47.708 to 0.343
9 A.BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1'47.728 at 0.363
10 J.LORENZO SPA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'47.747 at 0.382
11 A.IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1'47.807 to 0.442
12 D.PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'47.950 at 0.585
13 M.MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'47.980 to 0.615
14 V.ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'48.000 to 0.635
15 S.REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'48.111 at 0.746
16 A.ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1'48.129 at 0.764
17 J.MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1'48.664 to 1.195
18 T.RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1 to 48.664
19 L.BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 1'48.751 to 1.386
20 S.LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1'48.842 to 1.477
21 K.ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 6 1'48.925 to 1.560
22 P.ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'49.524 at 2.159
23 B.SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'49.640 to 2.275
24 S.GUINTOLI FRA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1'50.054 to 2.689
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 85 points
2 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 68
3 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 62
4 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 58
5 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 55
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 54
7 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 40
8 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati 38
9 Jonas FOLGER-Yamaha 38
10 Jack MILLER-Honda 29
11 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 26
12 Scott REDDING-Ducati 26
13 Loris BAZ-Ducati 19
14 Aleix ESPARGARO-Aprilia 17
15 Andrea IANNONE-Suzuki 15
16 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Ducati 14
17 Tito RABAT-Honda 13
18 Hector BARBERA-Ducati 12
19 Karel ABRAHAM-Ducati 9
20 Alex RINS-Suzuki 7
21 Pol ESPARGARO-KTM 6
22 Bradley SMITH-KTM 6
23 Sam LOWES-Aprilia 2
24 Sylvain GUINTOLI-Suzuki 1
