Barbera slowed down by tricky qualifying conditions but still confident for the race

Pramac Racing Team rider Hèctor Barberà took the fourth row at Assen today, ahead of tomorrow’’s TT Assen Grand Prix. The experienced Spaniard declared himself satisfied with the setup of his machine and he finished with a best time of 1’’35.289, even if he wasn’t able to further improve his best lap time in conditions that were warm but cooler than yesterday.

In fact, the balmy weather of the first two free practice sessions gave way to unsettled weather and both the morning free practice and the qualifying sessions were briefly interrupted by spots of rain that forced most of the Premier Class riders to wait in their boxes.

Rain is also a possibility tomorrow and with the weather at Assen generally changing extremely quickly,as we saw today, the Pramac Team may have to wait until just before the race to make a final tyre decision. Tomorrow’s 26-lap race will begin at 14.00 CET.

Hèctor Barberà “It was a shame. When I tried to set the fastest lap time with the soft tyre I was not lucky enough, because during the first try it started to rain and on the second one I found a rider on my line who was slower than me, so I lost a better grid position. Despite that I’’m confident about the race, thanks to my crew, which did a great job on my Ducati Desmosedici, finding the right setup for this historic track.”

Marco Rigamonti -– Pramac Racing Track Engineer
“The weather did not help us when we needed its assistance to clock a fast lap time. But the highlight of today’’s qualifying practice was our race pace which was so close to the other Ducati’s riders, giving us a lots of confidence for tomorrow’’s race.”

Source: Pramac Racing Press Release