Valentino Rossi dominates resolutely in Barcelona.
Toni Elias, Fonsi Nieto, Dani Pedrosa and Pablo Nieto prepare their final assault for the first row of the starting grid
First official practices of the Catalunya Grand Prix and the high temperatures still following the Motorcycle World Championship. If only a couple of days ago the riders had to stand temperatures of about 35ºC now it’s the turn of the circuit located close to the city of Barcelona. But the 31º in the air and 44º on the ground have not been impediment enough for Valentino Rossi to break the record of the circuit, improving it by a whole second and a half. Fastest at the end of the first qualifying session, the Repsol rider gave the impression of having all his rivals permanently under control, setting his fastest time on the last lap despite loosing some tenths while overtaking a slower rider. His team-mate Nicky Hayden, eleventh fastest in the morning, had some setting problems in the afternoon that set him back to the seventeenth position. In the quarter-litre class, Toni Elias is back in shape after the sixth place at the Italian Grand Prix. Third fastest this morning, Toni has made a well planned timed session, keeping himself constantly in the leading positions taking finally the second position, behind the Frenchman De Puniet. However, the qualifying practices have not been as positive for his team-mate Fonsi Nieto. Despite setting the fastest time during the morning’s free practice, Fonsi had problems with his bike’s settings in the afternoon, falling back to the seventh position of the provisional starting grid. The Argentinean Sebastián Porto, with 10 km/h less of top speed with regard to the fastest bike of the class, finished fifth fastest, but young Porto is looking forward to be fighting for a place on the front row tomorrow. Joan Olivé and Héctor Faubel, eleventh and twelfth in the free practice, are playing at home and this is something they want to make good use of. In the afternoon, Faubel was the fastest of the Aspar Junior Team members setting the thirteenth fastest time, while his team-mate finished fifteenth.
In the 125cc class, Dani Pedrosa did not have a good start of the day, since Alberto Pug’s young pupil crashed during the free practices in the morning, fortunately without consequences. Despite the incident, Pedrosa managed to qualify third in the afternoon, behind the Italians Cecchinello and De Angelis. Pablo Nieto finished right behind Dani, setting the fourth fastest time, making an impeccable qualifying session keeping himself constantly among the top riders. Excellent performance of Héctor Barberá, both in the morning and in the afternoon. After solving the problems that were hindering him from improving he managed to finish sixth.
