The Pons Racing team returns from the Barcelona Grand Prix satisfied with a top 10 on one side of the box, and points on the other, for the first race without Héctor Barberá.
Lorenzo Baldassarri started his weekend in Catalonia slowly, but surely. First eleventh in FP1, he then finished twelfth in FP2, before progressing to fifth position in FP3. Qualifying was pretty good with a tenth place.
The Italian driver was therefore confident for the race, in which he took part with the colors under which Sito Pons was racing. After a good start, he quietly moved up to seventh place. The podium was not possible, but he scored important points for the Championship, of which he currently occupies fourth position, twenty-five points from the leader.
He was therefore satisfied when he returned to the box: “I'm happy with my seventh place, because I gave my best and that's important. At the beginning I got a good start and maintained my position. At one point another driver touched me and I lost contact with the leading group. I didn't get upset and set my pace until I reached seventh place, less than a tenth from sixth. I'm satisfied because we worked well throughout the weekend and now we had the pace to fight for the podium. I thank the team for their work and the sponsors for their support. I can't wait to be in Assen! »
Baldassarri had a new teammate this weekend, in the person ofAugusto Fernández, who replaced Héctor Barberá after his dismissal from the team. As of yet, no announcements have been made about the rest of the season, and it could be that someone else gets the ride for the next few races.
Regardless, young Fernández had a good weekend. After showing himself in FP1 by finishing fourth, he got back into line a little more in FP2 with the fifteenth time, before returning to the front in FP3 by finishing ninth. Unfortunately, he missed his qualification, and could not do better than twentieth.
The Spanish driver finally managed to get back into the race and finish in the points, in fourteenth position: “I missed my start and that affected my entire race. Lowes was also starting from a distance and we both had a good pace so we started to come up together and got to the points zone. As we were about to continue our climb, I started fighting with another rider and lost contact with the group that was fighting for the top 10. It's a shame because we had the pace to be with them and finish in a better position, but with my bad start and the twenty-fourth place I ended up in, moving up ten places is good. I am happy and I would like to thank the team for all the work done and for this opportunity. »
