Faubel hoping to continue recent form in Italy, Moncayo searching for engine fix

After last Sunday’s ‘last-man-standing’ lottery at soaking Sachsenring the Moto3 series heads to warmer climes this weekend as the Mugello circuit in Tuscany prepares to play host to round nine. The long and technical Italian circuit’s 1.141km straight was always a decisive part of the 125cc races here and it promises to be a major factor for Moto3, with slipstreams always important. Sandro Cortese emerged victorious from his home race to retake the championship lead last Sunday and it will be interesting to see if he can hang on to it into the summer break.

MAPFRE Aspar rider Héctor Faubel only missed out on the podium in Germany because of a problem with his bike on the start line that saw the Spaniard forced to start from pit-lane. A spectacular fightback saw him finish seventh, confirming that he and the Kalex/KTM are now a competitive force. Having won at Mugello once already in 2007 Héctor is determined to return to the podium there and head into the holiday period with a clear conscience. His team-mate Alberto Moncayo’s problems in Germany came at the end of the race rather than the start, when his engine packed in, but with a solid chassis set-up already established the Spaniard knows that by fixing the problem he will be able to return to the points battle.

Héctor Faubel: “I adore Mugello, it has always been a good track for me. Despite the unpredictable weather I had a lot of fun on the bike last weekend and I hope that continues. We have found a good balance, the chassis feels good and handles well and the engine is improving. Even so we have to keep working. We are on the right lines but we have to turn our efforts into podiums and I am sure that will happen soon. Hopefully we can get to the end in the lead group because the slipstreams will be decisive at this race.”

Alberto Moncayo: “Sachsenring was a bit like Assen – we performed very well in practice but it didn;t translate into a good result. We had a setback with the engine so our first job at Mugello will be to try and fix it. We have been out of the points at the last two races so the goal is to make up for that as much as possible this weekend. I like Mugello a lot but I know how important it is to have the bike working well there. We took a big step forward with the chassis two races ago and I feel very secure with the bike in corner entry, so now we have to get the engine right so that we don’t have the same problem as Sachsenring.”

Source: Team Aspar Press Release