Mapfre Aspar team rider Hector Barbera satisfied with results at Le Mans – MotoGP news
Mapfre Aspar Team rider Hector Barbera was pleased with his ninth place finish at the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France.
He earned his place after a four-way battle with his rivals on Sunday.
The Spanish rider put all his efforts to complete a difficult race weekend with positive results at the French Grand Prix. Due to a crash in the last event which was held at Estoril, Barbera was not feeling okay for the race. The Mapfre Aspar team rider
struggled on the race day. Starting from the 14th place on the grid, he went a little wide during the first lap, but he was determined to battle for positions in the race.
The ninth place battle was between Alvaro Bautista of Rizla Suzuki, Toni Elias of LCR Honda and Karel Abraham of AB Cardion Motoracing. Barbera crossed the chequered line in ninth place and was followed by Karel Abraham, Toni Elias, Alvaro Bautista and Colin
Edwards.
Barbera was content with his position at the French Grand Prix and said, “This was possibly the most fun race that I've had so far this season. We know our options after looking at the practice sessions, and it was entertaining to be riding around with four
other riders for most of the race. We were overtaking one another constantly.”
The Spanish rider still thinks he could have done the job in an even better way. During the battle for ninth place, he had his sight on Nicky Hayden of Ducati Team and kept his pace to shorten the lap times as much as possible. Like Alvaro Bautista, the
Mapfre Aspar rider also made a slight mistake and ran off the track leaning back to the last position in the race.
Barbera explained his riding technique and said, “From then on I had to change my strategy, as I had to regain places any way that I could. I was lucky enough to do so and move up to ninth.”
The Spaniard left the Le Mans circuit in high spirits because the team and rider gave their best to have a nice end to the race. The team and rider were able to gather their confidence after a crash at the Grande Premio de Portugal. This state of satisfaction
gives the rider a high morale and he can enter Catalunya in a positive frame of mind.
Barbera with one ‘not classified’ status, 12th place finish at the season opener in Qatar and two top ten finishes from four rounds of the 2011 MotoGP season stands at 10th place in the World Championship points table.
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