10th Grid Spot Leaves Barbera Confident For Mugello Raceday

Rain once again halted play in the MotoGP World Championship today as a light downpour midway through qualifying practice at Mugello saw the lap times and grid positions stall. Before that Casey Stoner had set the fastest ever lap of the Mugello (1’48.034) to seal pole position ahead of Ben Spies and Marco Simoncelli, the quickest rider this morning. Only a handful of riders chose to ride as the track eventually became wet enough towards the very end of the session.

Héctor Barberá has had a busy weekend trying to make the necessary changes that give him more feel and confidence on his Ducati. A completely new set-up yesterday failed to deliver the required response but a backward step today led to the Spaniard improving his pace and lapping just 1.6 seconds shy of pole position. With renewed confidence and motivation Héctor is hoping for further improvements tomorrow.

10th Héctor Barberá 1.49.663 (16 laps):
“We have spent all weekend making changes and testing different things. The weather hasn’t helped us but we took a step backwards this morning and the situation was better this afternoon. We went to a setting we already know and it gained us a second. I am happy because we are back on the right path after two races and we have a clear idea why. Just a return to the riding position and geometry that we started the season with improved my feeling. Apart from the improvements the important thing is that I am enjoying myself on the bike again and I hope I can show it tomorrow in the race.”

Source: Aspar Media