Light and shadow for the Repsol riders in Portugal.
Impressive dominance of De Puniet, Pedrosa and Porto in the 250cc; Repsol Honda Team riders drop to the third row of the MotoGP starting grid.
Average performance of the Repsol Honda Team riders in the definitive official practice session. Anybody would have expected more after the results of the mornings free practice, where Max Biaggi was third and Nicky Hayden fifth, both less than four tenths behind the fastest time set by Brazilian rider Alex Barros.
In the afternoon session, during the qualifying practice, Max Biaggi took the lead fifteen minutes after the start of the session. Max managed to stay among the top throughout the session, securing himself a place on the first or second row but during the last instants and with qualifying tyres, the Roman rider of the Repsol Honda Team was not able to set faster times having to settle for eighth and a place on the third row of the starting grid. His teammate Nicky Hayden will also start tomorrow from the third row of the grid, one position behind Biaggi, and could have even had to start from a worse position if it wouldnt have been for his mechanics. 24 minutes before the end of the session, Hayden crashed with his number one bike and had to run back to his garage to get back on the track on bike number two. His mechanics adapted the settings of the crashed bike to the second one and Nicky was able to rejoin the practice to set the ninth fastest time of the session.
In 250cc, the three Repsol riders Randy De Puniet, Sebastián Porto and Dani Pedrosa keep on showing themselves unattainable for the rest of the riders of their class. Pedrosa was fastest in the morning, with Porto third and De Puniet fifth. Between them were Dovizioso, second, and Stoner, fourth. In the afternoon, during the second and definitive qualifying session, the Frenchman made an excellent fast lap in the last instants, boosting him to the leading place on the starting grid. Both his teammate Sebastián Porto and Dani Pedrosa tried to beat him, but the pole position went this time to the Frenchman, followed by Porto, four hundreds of a second behind, and Pedrosa, one tenth behind the lead.
The fourth rider on the front row will be Dovizioso, with Japanese rider Hiroshi Aoyama starting from seventh. In the quarter-of-a-litre class, Héctor Faubel is keeping the rising line he already showed yesterday, and his quick adaptation to the 125cc, after the change from the 250cc is already a fact. Jorge Martínez Aspars pupil, thirteenth in the mornings practice, finished this afternoons session with a very good performance, moving up to fourth, and getting a place on the front row.
The rider from Valencia, who managed to be second only a few minutes before the end of the session, had been seventh yesterday, thus confirming that he and his team are aspirants to a place on the podium of the second Grand Prix of the season.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
8th, 138.009, 29 laps.
8th on the grid:
Much better than yesterday for sure. Weve been working on the electronics and our step forward comes from there. Obviously, our job isnt done yet. Particularly in some points of the track it is still too difficult to keep the lines. The qualifying lap could be much better but now we are thinking about improving the race set up for tomorrow. Theres not much time left but at least we know what to do.
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
9th, 138.123, 25 laps:
The session was pretty lame really. I felt alright at the beginning but I was struggling to go fast consistently in the mid part of the session. We got the bike going a bit better then I crashed on my in-lap. Really strange. I checked the time I was well off the pace. I just tipped the bike in and I was down. We had to switch bikes to my spare that was not set up the same. Its never easy to get on a different bike with qualifying tyres on but we had no choice. Initially I thought the time was okay but when youre a bit off here its row three! Well see tomorrow.
250. Randy De Puniet
1st, 141.104, 19 laps.
1st on the grid:
Im very happy for my first pole of the season. Just like yesterday, my feelings on this bike are good and I think that we have a good setting for the race. Im confident because I got a good pace, but my main aim is to finish the race on the podium to score points after the bad result in Jerez. The weather might be an inconvenience for us, because the forecasts are talking about rain for tomorrow, but well try to do our best and well have to adapt to whatever may come.
250. Sebastián Porto
2nd, 141.152, 18 laps:
It hasnt been bad, but Im not completely happy. We improved with regard to yesterday, but its really been a complicated weekend for us. Yesterdays crashes made us loose one practice session compared to the other riders, as regards the settings, but the most important was, however to get a place on the front row of the starting grid. Ive been faster than yesterday and Im just one tenth behind the pole. I think that we still have room to improve, so well check the telemetry data and make some changes to find a better setting. There are several riders with a good pace and therefore itll be a grouped race, which will be decided in the last instants.
250. Dani Pedrosa
3rd, 141.315, 21 laps.
3rd on the grid:
I tried to improve my time at the end of the session, but there was a lot of traffic on the track and I couldnt finish the fast lap. But its important to be on the front row and Im also quite satisfied with our pace and the setting of the bike if its a dry race, although we still have to decide on the tyres. I think that itll be a long and grouped race, but as we did in Jerez, Id like to change my luck and at least get a place on the podium.
125. Héctor Faubel
4th, 146.059, 13 laps.
4th on the grid:
Im happy. Ive been working consistently to be in the front and this is the first result of the good job were doing. I managed to get a place on the front row and the truth is that Im really happy about it. I hope to make a good start tomorrow and to get a chance for my first podium finish. In case it rains, well try to set the bike during the warm-up and do our race the best we can.
