Sebastian Porto once again fastest of the first qualifying session at the Malaysian GP.
The Repsol rider sets the 250 pole time with Fonsi Nieto seventh; Hayden eleventh and Barros fourteenth in MotoGP; Pablo Nieto fourth in the 250.
After the high temperatures in Qatar, there is the heat and humidity of Sepang, venue of the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend. With a humidity of over 50% and temperatures of more than 35º C, the first qualifying practices were held today on the Malaysian circuit. It was a positive day for some but also a negative day for some other of the Repsol riders taking part in the Motorcycle World Championship.It wasn’t a good practice session for the Repsol riders of the MotoGP class, with both of them in quite back positions after the official practices. In the morning, Alex Barros had set the fastest time with an advantage of half a second over the second classified rider, Gibernau. His team-mate Nicky Hayden was eleventh in the morning. The rain showed up in the afternoon, right after the qualifying practice of the 125cc, so that the first minutes of the MotoGP session were carried out on a wet track. Thanks to the special meteorology of the region, the asphalt dried up quickly and the riders were able to continue working on their bikes’ setting under normal conditions. Nicky Hayden finished again eleventh while his team-mate Alex Barros, was not able to equal the time he had set in the morning finishing fourteenth. The great revelation of the Grand Prix of Qatar, Repsol rider Rubén Xaus, set the fifteenth fastest time in the morning and the eighteenth in the afternoon’s timed session.
In the 250cc Sebastián Porto is still in command. After his victory in Qatar where he also was the fastest of the four practice sessions, the Repsol rider arrived in Malaysia determined to make things difficult for Dani Pedrosa to take the world title in the quarter-of-a-litre class. Fastest in the morning’s free practice, despite suffering a strong crash without physical consequences, the Argentinean rider of the Repsol Aspar Team set the provisional pole time with an advantage of more than half a second over Pedrosa, who was second both in the morning and in the afternoon. Third classified was Aprilia rider Alex de Angelis, almost one second and a half behind Porto’s fastest time. His team-mate Fonsi Nieto, ninth in the morning’s free practice, set the seventh fastest time in the afternoon’s qualifying session.
In the minor class, the times set in the morning practice were hard to beat but finally Andrea Dovizioso managed to improve the fastest time of the free practice by seven tenths of a second taking the provisional pole clocking 2’13.685.
Pablo Nieto, who improved the time set in the morning by one second and a half, was fourth fastest, less than a second behind the Italian rider. He is now on the front row of the starting grid, which might become his definitive position, after the weather forecasts have predicted rain for tomorrow afternoon in Sepang. The youngest of the Nieto’s used most of the session to find the optimal setting for the race on Sunday and was quite satisfied with the results after the practice. He went for a qualifying time five minutes before the end of the session and managed to be even second behind Barbera but was finally fourth after Dovizioso took the pole and Stoner third. His team-mate, Sergio Gadea, who enjoyed his first contact with the Malaysian track, set the twenty-second fastest time. The young rider, who is only half a second behind the scoring places, is very confident that he’ll be able to improve his times tomorrow.
