Barbera fights back after early mistake in Mugello

The biggest incident at the Italian Grand Prix was Saturday’s big crash for Valentino Rossi that ruled the local hero out of the race, but there was still a Grand Prix to be held on Sunday and points to be earned. The MotoGP race was a great escape for Dani Pedrosa after one of his trademark speedy starts, and not even Jorge Lorenzo was able to catch him as he cruised to victory. The podium was decided practically from the start, although there was an entertaining battle for fourth place to liven up proceedings. The world championship now picks up speed in the month of June, although Rossi will be watching on from the sidelines.

Páginas Amarillas Aspar rider Héctor Barberá was excited about racing at Mugello in the premier class, and once again he was made to pay for his exuberance. He had started from thirteenth on the grid after a qualifying misjudgment, but was keen to improve his position early on. However, on lap three he pushed beyond his limit and ran off track, providing him with the task of starting again from scratch. The rookie picked up his pace and made up places, eventually coming home twelfth in a disappointing result considering his expectations. In two weeks time he will get the chance to right the wrongs, at Silverstone in Great Britain.

12th Héctor Barberá: “Well, the same thing that happened to me in Qatar and Jerez occurred today. On the opening laps I saw that I could ride in eighth or seventh, but I got ahead of myself. It’s what you get for qualifying low down the order, keeping me away from the others at the start and requiring me to push harder to recover. That’s when I make mistakes. So now I’ve learnt that I have to do a single fast lap in qualifying to avoid this situation. At the start of the race I overran my braking point, but I returned to the track and tried to take a progressive approach in finding a strong pace. It gets my back up a bit, because I could have done a lot better. I can’t wait for Silverstone in order to keep working on this.”