Qualifying Practice Grand Prix of Portugal
The final day of Free Practice and Qualifying in Estoril
for the MotoGP class was run in a strong heat that only served
to stoke the fires inside the pilots of the Pramac D'antin
Ducati as they sought to fight for a top spot in the Grid.
Unfortunately, the times did not improve, compared to yesterday's,
to the necessary degree, and as such, Alex Barros will start
from the fifth row, alongside Marlboro Ducati Factory pilot,
Loris Capirossi, and right behind them they are joined by
the Desmosedici of Alex Hofmann. The Brazilian from Sao Paulo
was unable to fully exploit the capabilities of his Bridgestone
qualifying rubber, lacking confidence in the rear during the
later stages of the Q Practice, while Alex Hofmann struggled
with bike set-up, despite testing a number of different solutions
that were inconclusive towards getting the maximum out of
the rider/machine combination. The race tomorrow will start
at 3PM (Local Time), and will run for 28 laps.
Alex Barros (22 laps. 1’37´55).
“What can I say? This position is not, of course, the
one that I, or the team, wanted, and the race is going to
be very difficult starting from so far back. The "grip"
from the rear is not working for me, and I don't have the
right feeling on corner exit. During tomorrow's "warm-up",
we want to test a tire that I think will be better for the
race. The best thing I can do at this point is get the best
start I can and pass as many people within the first two laps
- that way I have the best shot at getting to the top five.
I almost did it at the last race, so I'm hoping to do it tomorrow”.
Alex Hofmann (22 laps. 1’37´95).
“The truth is that this position wasn't unexpected.
Today we have worked hard on testing various chassis and electronic
settings, looking for that extra second, but at the end, we
weren't able to improve like we wanted to. I want to check
some things out in the warm-up tomorrow, and I'm thinking
that will put us in better shape for the race. It's going
to be a long and hard one, with this many guys in front of
me, but I'm ready to grip it and rip it".
Qualifying Practice:
1º Nicky Hayden 1´36¨30
2º Casey Stoner 1´36´34
3º Valentino Rossi 1´36´57
4º Makoto Tamada 1´36´73
5º Dani Pedrosa 1´36´82
14º Alex Barros 1´37´55
17º Alex Hofmann 1´37´95
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