Round six of the MotoGP World Championship took place at Catalunya this weekend and saw mixed fortunes for the PBM MotoGP team riders as Yonny Hernandez scored his best result of the season for the Penrith-based team of 13th place but Michael Laverty crashed out on the opening lap.

After the disappointment of just missing out on the points at Mugello in the previous round where they fell agonisingly short in 16th and 17th place, the team was hoping for better results in the heat of Spain. Both Colombian Hernandez on the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored Aprilia ART and Ulsterman Laverty on the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored PBM machine were consistent throughout qualifying and confident going into the race.

Both riders made good starts but for Laverty, from Toome in County Antrim, his race ended prematurely as he ran into the gravel on the opening lap and slid off meaning he missed out on another finish. For Hernandez, from Medellin, he battled hard throughout the 25-lap race and held on to finish in 13th place to claim his and the team's best result of the season to add to his points from earlier in the season in Qatar and Texas.

Despite Laverty's disappointment of his first non-finish of the season, it was another important result for the PBM team and Hernandez whereby he occupies 19th overall in the MotoGP World Championship standings with Laverty in 21st in his debut season. In the Claiming Rules Teams (CRT) class, Hernandez holds fifth with Laverty in seventh whereas PBM holds eighth place in the Constructors Championship in their debut season with their brand new British-built machine.

Michael Laverty:

"It was really disappointing to go out on the opening lap of the race after making such a good start. The bike has been working well this weekend and I felt confident for the race. I got up to 12th and was right on the back of Espargaro but I got sucked in too deep at Turn nine and was unable to stop and ran off the circuit. It was a minor crash in the gravel but I was unable to get the bike restarted. It was frustrating to watch Espargaro win the CRT class doing lap times that I've been very capable of maintaining on worn tyres. I can take the positives from this weekend and with the test today we have improved upon our base setting and will be stronger again at Assen in a fortnight."


Yonny Hernandez:

"I am happy to have scored some more points for the championship but in the race I had similar problems to some of the previous races. Here the rear tyre durability was worse for me, probably because of the character of the circuit and the high temperature. In the test today, we hope we have found some solutions for the durability."

Phil Borley, Technical Director:

"This weekend has been disappointing because we could have scored some good points with so many prototype riders not finishing. Yonny had more than his fair share of problems during the qualifying sessions but the main issue he had in the race was similar to the one he has suffered in the previous races and we have concentrated on solving this in the test today. Michael was much happier with the bike and settings at Catalunya and could have had a really good race after the great start he had. Unfortunately he ran on whilst defending his position and after falling in the gravel could not restart the bike. Today with the PBM bike we have confirmed some of the developments we have introduced recently as well as testing some new components."

Paul Bird, Team Owner:

"Although it's our best result this year, I'm a little disappointed that Yonny didn't finish higher as it was there for the taking. The problem seems to be a recurring issue and it's something Yonny as well as the team needs to address as he needs to look at his riding style and work on his training too. Michael again impressed me and I told him to push hard on lap one which he did, a little too hard as it turned out but I can't fault him for his efforts and already we are talking about next season."

picture Gold & Goose

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