Barbera qualifies 9th despite late crash

The second day of MotoGP action at Brno started out under grey clouds and thick fog that caused the second free practice session to be delayed by half an hour this morning but thankfully the sun emerged for the afternoon and qualifying practice went ahead on schedule. Lorenzo, Rossi and Pedrosa continued their battle for supremacy from yesterday but there were new protagonists today as Spies, Stoner and Edwards mounted a challenge for pole. Crashes for both Rossi and Lorenzo left the way open for Pedrosa to seal the front position on tomorrow’s starting grid at the end of the session.

Páginas Amarillas Aspar rider Héctor Barberá, who made a steady start yesterday, had been confident of major improvements today and that proved to be the case – the Spaniard taking a small step forward with a change to the geometry of his Ducati in this morning’s session followed by a major step in the afternoon, when he took advantage of the extra grip afforded by the warm track to shave more than a second and a half off his previous best. He was improving his lap time again in the closing stages of the session when he lost control in turn nine and crashed. Thankfully he emerged unscathed and is fit to race tomorrow, when he hopes to convert a third row start into a top ten finish.

<blockquote><strong>9th Héctor Barberá 1.57.960 (19 laps):</strong> “The crash was a shame because I was improving on that lap. I think it was a result of a little too much confidence because the track conditions were good and the grip was getting better and better. I didn’t have much confidence in corner entry but we’ve improved the set-up and that gave me a better feeling. I was really enjoying myself out there towards the end so everything is pretty much in place. We made a pretty radical change to the suspension height this morning that made the bike much easier to handle and I went faster from that points. I still need to find my limit but in general we’ve improved a lot and we are optimistic about the race. My starting position is good and the bike is set-up – I’ll give it my best shot and hopefully go home with a good result.”</blockquote>

Source: Aspar Ducati Team