Go Eleven and newly recruited rider Loris Baz had an extremely positive weekend of racing during the Portuguese round.

The French rider found it hard to get to grips with the qualifying tyre during Saturday’s Superpole but still securing a third row start for race one by coming 9th.

Race one was action-packed as Loris suddenly found his equilibrium with the Panigale V4 R, starting strong but with a strategy of chasing down the leading group from mid-race. After a series of overtakes, Baz held third, but this was short-lived as Bautista pulled ahead. Both riders now battled for a podium placing, pushing both bikes and their nerve to the limit. Then, in turn 15 Bautista lost the front end of his Honda which resulted in a crash and Baz snatching 3rd.

 

Sunday started wet and all team prepared for the Superpole with the appropriate tyre configuration. Yet another first for the Frenchman to contend with, Loris used every minute of the warmup session to familiarise himself for the upcoming main events.

The rain stops just short of the start of the Superpole and Go Eleven quickly opt to go with a softer tyre for a rapidly drying track. Baz pulls away from the line and manoeuvres past a couple of competitors on the first corner. Progress is interrupted slightly when Michael Rinaldi crashes just ahead of Loris in lap two, allowing a couple of riders to sneak past Loris. Undeterred, Baz attacks hard and quickly climbs the leader board to third. He keeps a good pace and tries to catch second but due to such similar lap times 2nd was held by Scott until the end. Narrowly missing yet another crash just before the end, Baz finished 3rd.

With two podiums under his belt and a first row start for race 2 all was looking promising. That is, until technical issues caused a delayed start, allowing the pre-warmed tyres to cool on the grid. Once the race was finally underway, Baz rode with caution until he felt the tyres had gained a good level of grip. Another factor that made the bike feel less confident was the strong winds that swept across the track but both issues were overcome to allow Loris to make gains lap after lap.

Amazingly, Loris duels with Bautista once again for third, each taking it in turn to nip at each other’s heals as each take it in turn to lead. The competitiveness sees the riders make contact on turn 5 and once again Loris snatches a podium spot!

"It seems like a dream, an incredible weekend! In the wet this morning I did a good job, but I think the soft choice at the rear was wrong. I still managed to get on the podium, though! I had a lot of fun in Race 2, the team did an exceptional job to try to give me a better bike than yesterday, one that took advantage of the grip much more. That's a pity, I lost a lot of time in the first few laps, but I didn't know what to expect after being 5 minutes on the grid without a generator. I also got a bad start, Van Der Mark's bike was smoking and I didn't want to stay in the slipstream. But I knew I had a good pace, I tried to stay calm and come back without making mistakes. In the end, Alvaro and I had a good battle, I am sorry for the contact at the end, I apologize to him, but it was a tough race, I also had contact with Rinaldi many times; that's racing! Thanks to Ducati, Go Eleven, everyone who allowed me to show that I have the potential to stay in this paddock! " Loris Baz