Positive day for the Repsol riders at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Sebastián Porto 3rd in the 250cc, Pablo Nieto 3rd in the 125cc and Nicky Hayden 5th in MotoGP are the most outstanding results.
A hard working day under high temperatures in Montmeló during the first official practice day of the Catalonia GP. The thirty degrees temperature have been an important inconvenience for the teams working plans and on such a demanding track like this, choosing the right tyres will be of vital importance for the race if the conditions do not change on Sunday. Its been a positive day in general for the Repsol riders. Pablo Nieto, 3rd, got a place on the front row of the 125cc grid despite a crash without important consequences. Pablo set the pace during most part of the practice session and kept his third place behind Lorenzo and Dovizioso despite having to watch the last minutes of the session from the pit garage. His teammate Sergio Gadea finished twenty-seventh. Pablo managed to keep an excellent pace throughout the day and his aim is to fight for the leading spot on the grid during tomorrows final qualifying practice. Sebastián Porto, winner in Mugello, also set the third fastest time. The afternoon 250cc qualifying session was carried out under very high temperatures and Porto was not able to work on his bike as planned.
There is however little difference between his third fastest time and the times of the first and second rider, Pedrosa and de Puniet, so tomorrows afternoon session will probably be highly contended. Fonsi Nieto had a hard time during the last part of the practices but managed to set the seventh fastest time, keeping the aim of getting a place on the front row tomorrow. Once again, it is almost impossible to make any forecast for the 250cc class. Nicky Hayden and Alex Barros finished fifth and seventh fastest in the MotoGP class, were the fastest time was clocked by Sete Gibernau. Both riders focussed on the settings of their bikes and finished their work looking forward to tomorrows sessions. Hayden, best qualified Repsol Honda Team rider stopped the clock 0,906 behind Gibernau while Rubén Xaus finished seventeenth, due to a crash that fortunately had no important consequences for him.
