In front of his home fans in Aragón, Xavi Forés achieved his best result of the year in Race 1 on Saturday at MotorLand, coming home fourth after a great comeback from ninth on the grid.

The Barni Racing Team rider used a clever tyre strategy to reserve rubber for the closing stages of the race, waiting for the right moment to launch his attack on the duo of Giugliano and Hayden ahead on the track.

“I’m really happy!” said Forés. “Honestly, I didn’t expect the race to go like that. At the start I had some trouble getting past Hayden, which made me lose time. I knew I might have a better rhythm than Giugliano and Guintoli, who were also in our group and in the end I decided to go for it and overtake them to be able to concentrate on my own rhythm. Davide stayed behind me until the last lap, and tried to attack me a couple of times.”

For Forés, who is only recently recovered from the consequences of his fall in Phillip Island where he fractured a finger, the result proves a real injection of morale.

“Today went great. I achieved this fourth position, and for me and my team it’s almost like a victory after the two Rounds so far outside of Europe in which we suffered a lot. We needed it and now we’re going to start working on Race 2.”

That second race starts at 1pm local time (GMT +2) on Sunday, where Forés will hope to fight for the top positions in the race once again.