ALEX BARROS DETERMINED TO IMPROVE DURING THE RACE
Preparations for Sunday’s Czech Republic GP, the twelfth
round of this season’s MotoGP championship, continued
at the Brno circuit today, culminating in this afternoon’s
qualifying session to determine the grid for tomorrow’s
race.
It will not be an easy race for the Pramac d’Antin
team with both riders looking to make up positions after a
difficult qualifying session. Brazilian Alex Barros, who will
start from the fifth row, is determined to make a good start
immediately to find competitive race pace. He will aim to
recover positions in order to fight in the top eight.
Ivan Silva will face an even tougher race, the Spaniard riding
the GP7 for only the third time, but he will give his best
to obtain a positive result tomorrow afternoon.
Alex Barros (1’58.204 – 20 laps):
”The adjustments we made this morning and the different
kinds of tyre we chose enabled us to improve in comparison
with yesterday’s practice; unfortunately the problem
is always the same, I’m not fast enough with qualifying
tyres. I don’t know why, but we are always missing the
first rows on the grid. This means that also tomorrow I will
have to be concentrated on making a good start and to get
immediately on the pace. Fortunately, as regards race setting,
I’m confident because this afternoon I could ride in
the low 1.59s bracket, improving my pace by eight-tenths in
comparison with free practice in the morning. Furthermore,
this circuit is long and it is not too problematic to overtake
usually. Of course this is what I will try to do tomorrow.
I want to be fast and overtake from the first laps to ride
with the leading group.”
Ivan Silva (1’59.721 – 16 laps):
”Unfortunately, because of some technical difficulties,
we couldn’t utilize qualifying tyres as we would have
liked. I’m very displeased because I haven’t improved
my position. My biggest regret is for the team who decided
to give me the opportunity to run in MotoGP again and the
crew who have worked very well this weekend. Tomorrow I hope
to do a good start and to succeed in riding with the small
group of riders in front of me that have the same race pace
and to overtake some of them.”
Official Times
1° Casey Stoner: 1’56.884
2° Nicky Hayden: 1’57.164
3° Dani Pedrosa: 1’57.179
4° John Hopkins: 1’57.567
5° Randy De Puniet: 1’57.599
13° Alex Barros: 1’58.204
18° Ivan Silva: 1’59.721
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