„It was a fun and challenging race today,” said Hannes after his performance on Sunday. “First of all, another rider fell and I had to jump to avoid a crash, and the pressure was on from there till the end. Lots of duels, overtakes and action on the track, only the result could have been better after such a tussle. I don’t remember having to fight that hard for 11th place.”

Kallio Racing rider started the second race of the Catalan round with high expectations since changes to his bike seemed to work and during his morning warm-up Hannes showed sixth-best time. “The bike was perfect in a cool morning, but in the course of the race yesterday’s troubles continued and therefore I could not benefit from my fresh tires. Once again the rear tire lacked grip, just like in wet conditions yesterday.”

Hannes said everything was just fine until there was no grip while accelerating out of the turns. “It was like riding on ice until the end, and my teammate had the same problem. I was riding as best I could, but in longer turns where we held a high lean angle for quite a while I lost so much time it was not possible to make up for it elsewhere.”

The next round will take place in a week and Hannes is hopeful, ”My leg held up and we can continue searching for a solution since all the lessons from Catalan will be fresh in our minds.”