Sebastián Porto marks the difference in Italy setting new provisional pole.
Weather forecasts, top speeds in MotoGP and Repsol riders play the lead in the first day of the Italian Grand Prix.
With top speeds close to 350 km/h -Loris Capirossi and his Ducati reached 340’2 km/h on the longest straight of the Championship -, the rain threat has been constantly present over the Italian layout of Mugello on this first day of the Italian Grand Prix. Fortunately the three qualifying sessions were held on a dry track and the practices were carried out perfectly normally.
MotoGP experienced today an intense duel for the provisional pole between local hero Valentino Rossi and the current leader of the overall standings, Sete Gibernau, with a victorious Gibernau at the end of the session. The riders of the Repsol Honda Team took turns on place six and seven during both practice sessions. Nicky Hayden finished sixth and Alex Barros seventh in the morning practice. In the afternoon, the Brazilian improved, taking a provisional second row position, moving Hayden back to the third. Rubén Xaus and his Ducati, nineteenth in their first contact with the Italian track this morning, set the fifteenth fastest time in the afternoon.
In the 250, Sebastián Porto marked the difference once again, setting the fastest time in both practice sessions. With an advantage of almost a second over his immediate follower, Frenchman De Puniet, Sebastián will try tomorrow to keep his grid position and take his second pole of the season. His teammate Fonsi Nieto, who is back on the track where he finished second last year, set the eighth fastest time, thus securing a provisional second row position.In the minor class, Pablo Nieto had a good start in the morning practice of the Italian Grand Prix, on the Repsol rider’s twenty-fourth birthday. Pablo set the third fastest time this morning, fighting until the last moment for the fastest clock.
In the afternoon, Jorge Martínez Aspar’s pupil could not keep his morning position and was set back to the eleventh place. His teammate Sergio Gadea, twenty-eighth fastest in the free practice, was set back to the thirty-sixth place in the afternoon. Gadea, who had been lapping almost two seconds faster during the private tests his team carried out in Mugello last April, hopes to be able to solve the frame problems that are hindering him from lapping with confidence on the fastest sections of the circuit.
