Barbera continues strong weekend with third row start

Hèctor Barberà will kick off his third MotoGP campaign from the third row of the grid after a closely fought opening qualifying session of the 2012 season in Doha this evening. Hèctor registered the eight-best time with 1’55.982, behind Nicky Hayden, the only Ducati rider to finish the session ahead of the Spaniard.

Tomorrow’s race is scheduled to run for 22 laps and it is the first of the 18-round World Championship which will conclude in Valencia on November.

Hèctor Barberà: “The overall impression of these three days of practices was strongly positive. Thanks to my team’s work we were able to improve and understand both the track conditions and the behaviour of my Ducati on it. Probabily this weekend has so far been most satisfying one of my MotoGP career. It’s a shame that I lost out on the second row only by one tenth of a second and to be honest the second row was my goal until today. But now I have only to think about tomorrow’s race and I’m excited for it, because I want to achieve a good position ahead the Ducati official riders.”

Francesco Guidotti – Pramac Racing Team Manager
“Today we had a good result, but our goal was to achieve the second row. Tommorow’s race will certainly be a big battle with many unknowns, but I’m convinced that Hector will be able to show a good performance.”

Source: Pramac Racing