GRAND PRIX OF ITALY
First qualifying practice / HECTOR BARBERA, SECOND,
AND JORGE LORENZO, SIXTH, BOTH RIGHT IN CONTENTION AT THE
ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
Hector Barbera and Jorge Lorenzo both shone on the first
day of qualifying at the Italian GP at Mugello, taking second
and sixth respectively. The two FORTUNA APRILIA riders formed
part of a select band of just six riders who finished the
session separated by just two tenths of a second. Barbera
missed out on pole by just 67 thousandths of a second as he
was edged out unexpectedly by Czech rider Jakub Smrz, while
Lorenzo was just 235 thousandths back. Rain once again played
a part during the session with intermittent showers making
for difficult conditions, although the top riders posted excellent
times. The FORTUNA APRILIA riders will both hope to improve
tomorrow if the rain stays away.
HECTOR BARBERA, 2nd
“If you look at the times of the top riders it’s
clearly going to be a hard and competitive weekend. We must
keep on working hard as we are not far off our times from
last year. The weather is not helping us too much, but conditions
are the same for everyone and whoever adapts best will win.
The bike is working well at this circuit, much better than
at Le Mans, and I am convinced we can get a good result.”
JORGE LORENZO, 6th
“We can still improve quite a bit and I am optimistic
as I’m only two tenths back and yet I took things quite
easy. I want to work with my team to sort out a couple of
problems that are losing me time, but Mugello is a circuit
that I like and that I have done well at in the past. I am
still not where I want to be, but luckily it’s only
Friday and we still have a day to improve the set-up, particularly
the chassis, and take a step forward.”
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