Torres back with Avintia for Thailand

Jordi Torres will make his second MotoGP appearance, with Reale Avintia Ducati, at this weekend’s inaugural Thailand round.

Tito Rabat is still not yet fit to return from the fractured femur, tibia and fibula suffered at Silverstone and needs ‘a few more weeks of patience before getting back on his Ducati GP17’.

Torres was at the back of the field on his MotoGP debut at Aragon, but only 0.637s from team-mate Xavier Simeon in qualifying and within one-second of the Belgian by the end of the race.

“After the great experience of Aragon, where I had to absorb a lot of information over the weekend to adapt to my riding style to the MotoGP category, it’s fantastic to have another chance and to get back on the bike in Thailand,” Torres said.

Unlike the rest of the MotoGP field, Torres has already raced at Buriram due to his World Superbike appearances from 2015-2018 (best finish of fourth). However, the premier-class regulars will have February’s test data to count upon.

“I know the circuit very well, because we have been racing there in the last four years of the World Superbike championship,” Torres confirmed.”It’s a track that I like and I where I had good races. We will have to make the best of FP1 on Friday to catch up with the others and to keep improving.

“I must get down to the maximum lean angle and learn how to pick up the bike on the corners exits as quickly as possible. There are many things that I figured out in my head and now it’s time to apply this knowledge to the bike. Let’s see if I can ride more smoothly and if I can score a decent result on Sunday.”

While Torres again rides the team’s GP16, Simeon will get his third outing on Rabat’s GP17 machine.

“I am going to Thailand with a lot of confidence, because we tested there in the pre-season and this means that we will start the weekend with some experience,” said Simeon, who like fellow rookie Thomas Luthi is yet to score MotoGP points.

The lack of track experience was the cause of most of our problems this year, because it stopped us from getting on the pace quickly and getting the references with the MotoGP machine. I will ride Tito’s bike again and therefore, I have very high expectations. I hope to score points for the first time this season.”