First Ducati at the halfway point. That must be particularly sweet for Hector Barbera, given his reputation inside and outside the MotoGP paddock.
With so many Spanish riders packing the grid, Barbera is one of the riders Dorna are believed to be keen to ditch. Yet the Avintia Ducati rider keeps finding sponsorship to ride, and keeps proving that he is still fast enough to compete. Both with and without a tow.
Barbera has benefited from consistency and experience. Now in his second year on the Ducati GP14.2 (technically speaking, a little longer, having first gotten his hands on a GP14 at Aragon in 2014), he has a good understanding of what is needed to make the bike go fast.
The Avintia team have perhaps benefited most from the switch to the unified software, as it was they who did a lot of the heavy lifting with the Open class software for Ducati in 2015.
Barbera has also adapted well to the Michelins, using the extra rear grip to ride the Ducati like a 250, lots of lean angle and corner speed. That works well until the grip goes, a real problem especially with the Ducatis, which have a tendency to destroy the rear tires with their abundance of horsepower.
That is most evident during qualifying. Barbera has been a Q2 regular, bagging a second-row spot in Barcelona, and a front-row start at the Sachsenring. Barbera is often (rightly) accused of using other riders to give him a tow, but at the Sachsenring, the Spaniard proved he didn’t need it.
Barbera’s race results have not been as strong as his qualifying, as you would expect for a rider who suffers when the tires go off. But he has consistently finished inside the top ten, with a best of fifth at Argentina, and has benefited from the failures of the other Ducati riders.
Barbera is unlikely to finish the season as fastest Ducati, but he has proven he fully deserves his ride. Hector Barbera is no grid-filler.
Photo: © 2016 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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