BARBERA LOOKING FOR HIS FIRST PODIUM
The Malaysian Grand Prix, which takes place at the Sepang
circuit tomorrow, looks like providing a very exciting spectacle
– especially in the 250 class. After last weekend’s
thrilling event in Japan, this Sunday’s race promises
to be equally intense despite the absence of one of the category’s
leading figures – Jorge Lorenzo who is serving a one-race
ban. The Mallorcan rider continued his physical training at
his hotel this morning, but visited the track to check on
the progress on team-mate Hector Barbera in the afternoon.
The afternoon qualifying session took place in extremely hot
conditions which meant that the riders’ times were slower
than they had been in the morning. However, all but four riders
managed to improve their times from yesterday when abnormal
conditions hindered qualifying. Interestingly, times were
down on last year with this being the first race of the season
that riders had not improved from last season. HECTOR BARBERA
demonstrated that he is capable of making a strong challenge
in tomorrow’s race. The Spaniard will start on the second
row after a progressive session and a good start tomorrow
should see him up challenging the top riders.
HECTOR BARBERA (80):
Free Session: 7th-2.08.851 + 1.081 (20/20 laps)
Qualifying session-2: 8th-2.09.352 a 1.692 (16/17 laps)
“The bike has worked well over both days although I
was hoping to be higher up today. However, the second row
is not bad. We must keep working like this and then the results
will come. It was a shame that I ran into traffic as I was
trying to post my fastest lap and I could not make up lost
time. Tomorrow will be a very hard race although I’m
hoping for a good result.”
JORGE LORENZO (48):
“it’s a really strange weekend for me. For the
first time since I joined the World Championship I’ve
had to follow a qualifying session from the box and it was
quite hard to do so, but I could not let the team down. They
have been supporting me all week during what has been a tough
time for me and I thought the best way of repaying that was
coming here to show I will never forget the help they have
given me.”
DANI AMATRIAIN, Team Manager FORTUNA HONDA:
“Hector has done well in qualifying all weekend. He
has progressed well due to the consistent work both he and
the team have put in and tomorrow we hope he will show the
potential we all know he has. He will start from the second
row and if he makes a good start I think he can be up with
the lead group.”
BEST TIME OF THE DAY: D.Pedrosa (2.07.770) – FP 2
POLE: H.Aoyama (2.09.213) – Q-2
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