Repsol riders take positions at the South African track of Welkom.
Tomorrow Pablo Nieto, Sebastián Porto and Fonsi Nieto will go for the pole; Hayden and Barros will have to improve their times to go in for the leading spots of the grid.
The World Championship is finally back after an almost six months winter break, and the truth is, that after what weve been able to see in these first practices of 2004, the season promises to be very exciting and highly contended in the three classes. In MotoGP, the riders of the Repsol Honda Team have had an average performance on the first practice day. Alex Barros was the fastest of them setting the sixth best clock, whilst his teammate Nicky Hayden was ninth.
In the afternoon, the North American rider finished the first qualifying practices in the same position, setting the ninth fastest time, while his teammate Barros was set back to the twelfth position due to setting problems. Rookie Rubén Xaus on his Ducati made good proof of his good adaptation to the South African circuit. Xaus, who will probably become one of the big surprises of the 2004 World Championship, showed himself very active in the morning, setting the twelfth fastest time. In the afternoon, the Repsol rider improved his time by almost a second but the considerable improvement did not help him to move higher than the sixteenth position of a highly contended provisional starting grid.
In the 250cc, the day has been a constant fight between both men who have set the difference with respect to rest of the pack. Frenchman Randy De Puniet and Repsol rider Sebastián Porto let it clear, already in the morning session that they are going to be two of the fastest riders of the class. During the morning practice, De Puniet and Porto already fought for the fastest clock throughout the 45 minutes of the session. Finally the Frenchman set the fastest time, followed by Porto, five hundreds of a second behind and by Fonsi Nieto, a little bit over half a second behind. In the afternoon, the two leading positions were for the same riders, but Respol rider Fonsi Nieto was not able to keep his initial third place, falling back to fifth. The timed session has been a perfect copy of the morning practice with Porto and De Puniet swapping positions until the chequered flag.
In the 125cc, the rider of the Master Repsol Team Pablo Nieto has played a leading role during the first practice session held on the South African Track. During the morning practice Pablo Nieto already showed himself highly competitive, setting the ninth fastest time. Nieto spent most of the time working on his two bikes in order to get a good set-up and only used the last moments of the session to improve the pace. Sergio Gadea, in his first contact with the South African track, has been one of the riders who has made the most number of laps, setting the twenty-third fastest time. During the afternoons timed session, Pablo was the best Spanish rider of the class setting the fifth fastest clock. Nieto was second during most of the practice but was set back to the second row of the grid in the last instants. The Italian rider Roberto Locatelli on his Aprilia took the pole position. Sergio Gadea was twenty-eighth after his first qualifying session.
