Barni Racing Team’s Xavi Fores ended Friday evening in third overall, after improving his time in the combined standings from seventh fastest in FP1 to third by the end of the night. He cut away 0.972 seconds off of his time from the beginning of the evening and now looks ahead to the weekend’s races with confidence.

“It was a good first day for us, we found a good setup from the beginning from the evening where we had a good base, but it just wasn’t enough to be in the top 5,” explained Fores. “In the second session I found something different between the first session and the rest of the group and in the end I had a good feeling. We made third place which is a good job for us after the disaster we had in Jerez.”

In Round 12 at Jerez, Fores retired from both races, once due to a crash and the other due to technical issues. The disappointing results come after a run of solid results from the Spaniard who had been slowly improving. His progress between sessions on Friday in Qatar prove he is well on his way to seeing the results he hopes for in the final round. 

“Now I feel that the bike is handling really well,” said the Barni Racing rider. “It’s not so heavy to turn and I feel stronger than at the last races in the hard breaking points. That’s our biggest improvement. We have two different tyre compounds that are working well especially the medium tyre is the best solution for us at the moment, but we have to think about the race tyre because we need to m

know where the tyre is dropping out. But I’m feeling good with the tyres because in the second session we made similar times to the race times and the feeling is not so bad.”

Fores will be back on track fighting for the top grid spots in Tissot-Superpole 2 at 17:55 on Saturday 29^th October, before lights out for Race 1 at 20:00 local time (GMT+3) at the Losail International Circuit.