Valentino Rossi setting the pace again in MotoGP.
Despite a light crash this morning, the Repsol rider takes provisional pole.
Valentino Rossi’s crash in the practice session this morning hasn’t been hindrance at all for the Repsol rider to set the fastest time both in the morning and in the afternoon sessions. It hasn’t been an easy day for Valentino who not only had to shrug off this morning’s crash but also to stand a hard fight for the pole in the afternoon MotoGP session. With just one minute left, the Italian was fifth behind Biaggi, Checa, Bayliss and Gibernau. But a superb last lap gave Rossi the fastest time and the provisional pole position in the premier category. His team-mate Nicky Hayden, again in a new circuit for him, set the fourteenth fastest time during the free practice, keeping the same place after the afternoon session.
In the 250cc, Fonsi Nieto and Toni Elias haven’t had a good day. Despite at good start with Fonsi setting the fastest time and Elias the fourth in the morning session, things didn’t work out well in the afternoon for the Repsol riders with Fonsi finishing eighth and Elias ninth. A crash trying to overtake a slower rider during the first qualifying session of the German GP hindered Fonsi from improving his times, while Elias had setting problems he will have to solve tomorrow if he wants to improve his position on the grid. Unlike Nieto and Elias, Sebastián Porto has shown a good performance at the German Sachsenring circuit, setting the fourth fastest time only three tenths behind the provisional pole, taken by Frenchman De Puniet. Porto, who suffered a light crash at the end of the timed session, has shown himself very optimistic and fast on the German track. It’s also been a good day for Aspar’s pupils, Joan Olivé and Héctor Faubel, who finished eleventh and thirteenth respectively.
In the minor category, Pablo Nieto has shown that he is one of the fastest riders. Third fastest in the morning’s free practice, Aspar’s pupil set several times the fastest time during the last minutes of the qualifying practice. In his last timed lap, shortly before the chequered flag was shown, Pablo suffered a light crash in the entrance corner to the main straight, hindering him from taking back the pole position he had lost against De Angelis, having to settle for the final third place on the provisional grid. Dani Pedrosa, with some set-up problems in the front end of his bike and riding on a circuit he doesn’t feel very comfortable, finished eighth fastest while Héctor Barberá, winner of the last British Grand Prix was twelfth.
