Sebastián Porto, Nicky Hayden and Alex Barros chasing victory in Rio de Janeiro.
The Argentinean sets the pole in 250; Hayden -third- and Barros -fifth- will go for the victory tomorrow in MotoGP.
MotoGP has been the class with the largest number of surprises today. Yesterday’s pole setter, Sete Gibernau, wasn’t able to improve his times today and is fourth, while the leader of the overall standings, Valentino Rossi, couldn’t be better than eighth. The pole was taken by a surprising Kenny Roberts and his Suzuki. It’s been a very positive day for the Repsol Honda Team riders as well, with Nicky Hayden third behind Roberts and Biaggi, and Alex Barros fifth, getting over the discomfort on his left shoulder after the crash in Holland. Rubén Xaus did not show the performance he is getting us used to lately; problems with the settings of his bike set the brave Repsol rider back to the sixteenth position, although Xaus promised, that if he and his team are able to solve those difficulties he will be fighting for a place among the top ten.
In the 250, Sebastián Porto played his cards very cleverly this afternoon. Third fastest after the first qualifying practice, Sebas worked throughout the day on the settings of his bike for the race. Five minutes before the end of the session and after mounting qualifying tyres, Porto went for the pole and in only one lap managed to move up on the time sheets from third to first place. His main rivals, De Puniet, Poggiali and Pedrosa were not able to improve the times set yesterday. Fonsi Nieto set the tenth fastest time and will start tomorrow from the third row of the grid.In the minor class, the second day has been much more positive for the Repsol riders, especially for Pablo Nieto. Pablo improved his times by a bit over half a second, allowing him to move from yesterday’s fifteenth to the eighth position. Thanks to this result, Pablo Nieto will be starting tomorrow from the second row of the grid. His teammate Gadea improved his times as well, by a bit over two seconds, moving up from yesterday’s twenty-sixth to the twenty-third this afternoon.
