Difficult qualifying for Hector Barbera

Another straight fight for supremacy between Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner took place at Assen today, with the late addition of surprise package Randy De Puniet to the battle for pole this afternoon. The Yamaha man came out on top ahead of the Frenchman and the Australian but the consistency of the pace amongst the men at the front of the grid suggests an open race tomorrow.

After a cautious start yesterday Páginas Amarillas Aspar rider Héctor Barberá stepped up his workload today, looking for a better set-up in this morning’s free practice but struggling to make major improvements to his Ducati. The main difficulty for the Spaniard has been in T1, where he is losing up to eight tenths of a second per lap, and as a result he will start from fourteenth on the grid tomorrow. However, Héctor remains confident that a good warm-up session tomorrow morning can give him the chance to fight through the pack.

14th Héctor Barberá 1.36.569 (28 laps): “To be honest I haven’t enjoyed myself on the bike today and I’m starting from quite far back. We have tried some different springs and a variety of set-up solutions over the course of the last two days but nothing has helped us go quicker. It looked like we had found something yesterday and it went okay this morning but in the afternoon we got lost. I tried the second bike with a harder suspension setting and then when I got back on my first bike it wasn’t clear. I’m annoyed with myself but I’m trying to look at the positives. We can’t get any worse so we just have to try and work to get out of this hole we’ve found ourselves in here at Assen. I am going to sit down with the mechanics and analyse my mistakes from today and see how I can put them right. My main problem is in T1, which holds no secrets but somehow I’m losing eight tenths there. I’m a long way back but if we have a productive warm-up I think I can have a good race and make up a few positions.”

Source: Team Aspar