Sebastián Porto will start tomorrow from the pole at Phillip Island.
The Argentinean rider sets his ninth pole time of the season and will go for all at the Australian Grand Prix. Fonsi Nieto and Alex Barros will start from the second row.
6 The rain respected the second qualifying practice session of the Australian Grand Prix where the Repsol riders have had different lucks. While Sebastián Porto was able to take the pole in the 250cc class, his team-mate Fonsi Nieto was sixth fastest, getting a place on the second row of the grid. Less luck for the MotoGP riders: Alex Barros was sixth, Rubén Xaus twelfth and Nicky Hayden fifteenth.
In the 125cc class, Sergio Gadea confirmed his options to score setting the fourteenth fastest time, and Pablo Nieto, thirteenth, will try to make a good start to get a place in the leading group from the start of the race. The Repsol riders in the premier class were followed by adversity throughout the second qualifying session; Barros, Xaus and Hayden will start from the second, fourth and fifth row respectively. Today, Alex Barros made a total fifty-six laps proving to have a good race pace for tomorrow. But while he was trying to set a faster time, on his way to being third, another rider disturbed him and he wasnt able to be better than sixth. Nicky Hayden, who made one lap less than his team-mate, wasnt able to improve the time he set yesterday and was finally fifteenth fastest. The North American rider, who will start tomorrow from the fourteenth place, has been working on the set-up of his RC211V and mounted the qualifying tyres at the end of the session. Unfortunately he wasnt able to make good use of the tyres due to an inconvenient off-track. Despite suffering a strong hit on his neck during a crash in the free practice, Rubén Xaus managed to get back the pace in the afternoon and although he hasnt been able to improve his grid position, he managed to set a faster time than yesterday. Xaus will start from the fourth row of the grid on a track were he usually gets excellent results.
Sete Gibernau (130.122) will start tomorrow from the pole position, ahead of Valentino Rossi, who, like Hayden has been one of the few riders who did not improve the time set yesterday, and Max Biaggi. Sebastián Porto showed himself as the strongest man in the quarter-of-a-litre class, setting the fastest time in the second and definitive practice session, where the cold weather was the cause for several crashes.
The Argentinean rider was the only rider able to lap under 133 (132.099) today, setting a new pole record, which had been in possession of Japanese rider Tetsuya Harada since 2001. The rider of the Repsol Aspar Team managed to improve by almost a second the time set yesterday by the Italian Alex de Angelis, who will start from the second position. They will be sharing the front row with Manuel Poggiali, who was third in his return to action and Dani Pedrosa, fourth, who suffered an impressive crash without consequences at the end of the session. Fonsi Nieto, who spent the practice testing several configurations on his Aprilia had to settle for sixth and a place on the second row of the grid. In his last try to improve his time, Fonsi found another rider on his way and wasnt able to succeed. In the minor class, the pupils of Jorge Martínez Aspar will start tomorrow from the fourth row of the grid. Pablo Nieto set the thirteenth fastest time, right ahead of his team-mate Sergio Gadea, who finished fourteenth. Should they not have suffered setbacks during their respective flying laps, both riders could have been able to improve their positions on the starting grid because they have been setting times good enough to be among the top ten.
The pole time was set by the Italian Roberto Locatelli (137.417), followed by Jorge Lorenzo and local rider Casey Stoner, who have been the only ones able to lap under 138. Although the pole time of last year hasnt been improved, the time differences were very small today because the sixteen top riders are within less than one and a half second. Pablo Nieto, who had set the seventh fastest time in the morning showed himself quite satisfied with the behaviour of his Aprilia and he is confident that he will make a good start to get a place in the leading group. He will be joined by Sergio Gadea, who confirmed his quick adaptation to the Australian track and after setting the ninth fastest time in the mornings free practice, was able to improve the time set yesterday by one and a half second.
