Grand Prix of Spain (Catalunya)
Qualifying session
ALEX HOFMANN CLAIMS CATALAN TOP TEN WHILE BARROS
STRUGGLES IN QUALIFYING
 The
second day of Spanish race weekend at the Montmelò
circuit saw the Pramac d’Antin riders Alex Hofmann and
Alex Barros engaged in the important qualifying session for
tomorrow afternoon’s GP.
Unfortunately Alex Barros could not achieve the desired result
and will start the race from only fourteenth position which
will give the Brazilian a hard time at the start of the 25-lap
event. He will have to attack strongly from the start and
use his encouraging race pace to make his way up through the
field to the leading group.
Alex Hofmann, despite initial difficulties earlier in the
day, was able to record a competitive lap of 1’42.860,
using his Bridgestone qualifying tires to finish in tenth
position, his best result of the season so far, and the German
is confident for tomorrow’s race because he has found
a good race set-up with his Ducati Desmosedici.
Alex Barros (1’43.722 – 24 laps): “Today
I’m not really satisfied and unfortunately things did
not work in the right direction. We worked a lot to find the
best possible solution, but our final result wasn’t
as good as we had wished. My big difficulty is with the rear,
I haven’t enough traction and when I turn I lost too
much speed. To try to resolve these difficulties, we made
a lot of set-up changes, but as happened yesterday, we found
only a partial solution. In order to work on this problem
fully, we were not able to use the qualifying session properly
because we used qualifying tyres only for the last lap. Perhaps
if I could have had some more time, I could have improved
my lap time; but today our main focus was to resolve my difficulties
with the race set-up, something we have to continue tomorrow
morning.”
Alex Hofmann (1’42.860 – 18 laps): “Today
was very difficult for me, but at the end it felt really good;
the tenth position is a favourable position from which to
make a good race start. During both the morning and the afternoon
sessions, we had some technical difficulties and my bike did
not work so well. As a result, we lost a lot of important
time and I was a bit anxious, especially when I have to come
back to the box during the qualifying hour to change by bike.
This process took about half and hour and I was not confident
in obtaining a good result. Thankfully, the bike felt immediately
good in race trim and I had a good feeling with it. I am confident
for tomorrow and I hope for a competitive race.”
Official time:
1° Valentino Rossi: 1’41.840
2° Randy De Puniet: 1’41.901
3° Dani Pedrosa: 1’42.002
4° Casey Stoner: 1’42.117
5° John Hopkins: 1’42.233
10°Alex Hofmann: 1’42.860
14° Alex Barros: 1’43.722
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