Barbera disappointed about bad second day at Motegi and qualifying ruined by late crash

Qualifying practice for the Grand Prix of Japan was one of the most open of the season so far, with Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso all staking a claim for pole position before a decisive late effort from the latter Italian. Rossi, Lorenzo and Dovizioso will all fly the flag for Japanese factories at their home race tomorrow while Stoner leads the European charge on behalf of Ducati as he targets a second straight victory.

Páginas Amarillas Aspar rider Héctor Barberá also represents the Italian factory tomorrow, although it promises to be a challenging day for the rookie, who struggled to improve on an impressive start yesterday. Changes to his rear end set-up targeted at improving stability did not have the desired effect and he suffered a further setback in the afternoon, when a crash just ten minutes from the end of the session halted his qualifying challenge and limited him to fifteenth place on the starting grid.

15th Héctor Barberá 1.48.535 (22 laps): “To be honest we didn’t make much progress today. Yesterday went well but today we struggled to improve. We made a few changes to the set-up this morning but they didn’t work out so we took a step backwards and that cost us a lot of time. The bike is moving around a lot under acceleration and I don’t have much confidence in the hard braking zones. In fact, the crash came under braking and I didn’t have time to do anything else. I am not happy because we started so well yesterday and we have taken a step backwards. The positive thing is that I am still only 1.5 seconds off pole so I think we can still do well tomorrow. With a good start we can be fighting for the top ten or even eight.”

Source: Paginas Amarillas Aspar Team