SBK | Motul Dutch Round, Race1: positive result for Loris Baz

Loris Baz (GULF Althea BMW Racing Team), returning to the World Series Championship after three years in MotoGP, achieved a very positive result in Race 1 of the Motul Dutch Round, finishing in seventh place: the Frenchman finished in the points in these first releases of the season.

Baz is tackling this season step by step, aware that readjusting to a championship is never easy, especially when you have no other references than yourself, given that he is the only BMW driver on the grid.

“We have taken a step forward, the BMW team has arrived with some good ideas” – he says Loris Baz – “We were really far away in Aragon and the start of the season wasn't easy. I got hurt at Phillip Island, I struggled in Thailand where we had problems with the bike, we weren't fast in Aragon...but here we're doing better, we've made a step forward with the electronics and on the bike in general. We've closed the gap, that's great. We returned to Superpole 2 for the first time 17 seconds from first, but that's fifteen seconds without the last slow lap. So it's a good step forward, we lost sixth position for a few laps, but I'm fast because we've progressed. We will start fourth tomorrow, so I hope we can move forward further to stay with the leading guys. We need to improve the start a little because it's a weak point at the moment, but I'm happy. Today I smile, it hasn't happened in a long time!”

Baz knows that there is still a lot of work to do but he seems to be aware of what is needed: “We need more rear grip entering and exiting corners, the bike moves a lot. We also need to improve the electronics a bit. If we succeed, we can definitely take a step. We have a test planned before Imola and I hope we can improve there.”