A consistent race day performance for Team HRC at Motorland Aragón

“Not a bad Sunday at all, I’m happy with it. We expected to be at this level before coming here, because we knew from the recent test here that our pace was good, but we were of course also aware that Toprak and Loca were not at that test, so we had a pretty clear idea of our level. Over the weekend I focused on my race pace, lapping alone as much as possible, and I think we did a very good job in terms of preparing for the races. It was a pity about that jump start yesterday of course, so today I took particular care not to do the same thing again. In today’s races, I was easily fighting in the top ten, part of the second group and with very good feeling on the bike. I only struggled to find my rhythm over maybe the first four or five laps of race 2, but then the pace of the guys ahead dropped while mine remained consistent, so I could catch my team-mate and some of the other riders. I got very close to Bassani but then in the final laps I had a big moment through turn 12 and am not even sure how I managed to avoid going down. When I realised I was still in the race, I chose to settle for sixth which is a solid result, and a very important one for me. Now we have a couple of days to relax and then we’ll see if we can keep the momentum going at Portimão.”

“It has been a solid Sunday after a difficult race on Saturday when we struggled unexpectedly. In this morning’s warm up, I was able to find the feeling we’d had during practice and felt strong and competitive again. The Superpole race was very good for us, possibly the best we’ve had this year, both in terms of the result and my feeling on the bike. I came into contact with another rider soon into the race, and lost ground because of that, but I was feeling really strong and was able to make several passes to finish seventh. The long race was positive enough, not what we are here for of course but the kind of result we can expect and fight for right now. So I’m happy with that and happy with the work we’ve done together in the garage. Now we turn our attention to Portimão, a track that I like and one I’m really looking forward to racing at again.”