Comunitat Valenciana GP. First practice

Repsol Honda Team setting the pace in Valencia
Valentino Rossi, fastest, and Nicky Hayden, second, leading the provisional starting grid
Despite the adverse weather conditions, with intermittent rain, strong wind and low temperatures, the first qualifying practices have started the best possible way for the Repsol Honda Team, with Valentino Rossi fastest and Nicky Hayden second fastest in the MotoGP class. However, the first qualifying session hasn’t been an easy job for the Repsol Honda Team. The fight for the pole was also joined by Sete Gibernau, who was only half a second slower than the fastest time and Max Biaggi, over a second behind.In the 250 class, the Repsol riders had different lucks in this first practice day. Toni Elias was the best of them finishing sixth fastest, followed by Sebastián Porto, ninth and the local rider Héctor Faubel, showing a good performance in the afternoon, setting the twelfth fastest time of the session. Fonsi Nieto, working hard on the settings of his motorbike and with some technical problems, just as his team-mate Elias, set the thirteenth fastest time, while Joan Olivé finished twentieth. Frenchman Randy De Puniet set the fastest time of the class.In the minor category, local rider Héctor Barberá was followed by bad luck during the first practice day. Mechanical problems in both sessions and a light crash in the afternoon made it difficult to work on the settings of the Repsol rider’s bike. Barberá finished in a backwards twenty-fourth place, four places behind his team-mate Pablo Nieto, who finished twentieth. Given the strong wind at the Valencian circuit, Nieto preferred to ride with caution and wait for better weather conditions tomorrow, as indicated by the forecasts. The Italian rider Marco Simoncelli set the fastest time today.