Sebastián Porto and Fonsi Nieto set the pace in the Czech Republic
Aspar’s pupils, first and second in the 250cc. Alex Barros fifth in MotoGP, Rubén Xaus ninth and Nicky Hayden fifteenth.
Despite the sun shining now over the Czech track of Brno, it had been dark and rainy at daybreak, complicating the normal development of the initial qualifying practices of the Czech Grand Prix. In the MotoGP class, the free practices in the morning were carried out under difficult conditions since the rain showed up intermittently leaving the asphalt with some dry and some wet sections. In the first free practice, Nicky Hayden was fifth, Alex Barros eighth and Rubén Xaus tenth. In the afternoon, under heavy rain shower, the riders of the Repsol Honda Team had different results after the first qualifying session, with Alex Barros fifth and his team-mate Nicky Hayden in a back fifteenth position. Rubén Xaus, with lower level mechanics, managed to set the ninth fastest time of the provisional grid.
The 250cc timed session was the most exciting and contended session of the day. The morning’s free practice was held on a completely wet track, with Fonsi Nieto ninth fastest and Sebastián Porto sixteenth. The rain stopped towards the end of the afternoon MotoGP session, allowing the track to get dry while the 250cc riders were doing their initial laps of the qualifying session. The riders of the 250cc Repsol Team made good use of the situation using mixed compound tyres at the end of the session, clinching the top two places of the time sheets, with Sebastián Porto fastest and Fonsi Nieto second. In the minor class, the Repsol riders finished the first timed session in back positions, with Pablo Nieto fourteenth and Sergio Gadea, twenty-eighth in his first practice on the Czech track.
The practices in the morning were carried under dry conditions, although the rain was threatening throughout the session. In the free practice, Pablo Nieto set the sixteenth fastest time with his team-mate Sergio Gadea finishing twenty-seventh.
