French GP
First qualifying practice / THIRD FOR HECTOR BARBERA
AND FOURTH FOR JORGE LORENZO WHO SUFFERED A CRASH
Both FORTUNA APRILIA riders made the provisional front row
after a difficult first day of qualifying at the mythical
Le Mans circuit, scene of the GP of France. Hector Barbera,
winner in Shanghai last time out, finished third, just ahead
of Jorge Lorenzo in fourth who suffered a crash in the closing
stages of the qualifying session when he was pushing to lower
his time. Barbera was in first as the session entered its
closing stages, but saw himself overtaken by both Alex De
Angelis and Andrea Dovizioso. For his part, Lorenzo changed
his rear tyre, allowing himself two final laps, but fell on
the first of them – losing the front end of the bike
at a right-hand corner. As a result, both Fortuna Aprilia
riders will go into tomorrow’s session still aiming
to claim pole with forecasts predicting changeable conditions.
HECTOR BARBERÁ, 3rd
“It was a shame we could not take first place, but
we are very close. We tried different settings on the bike
to get as much data as possible ahead of Sunday’s race.
At first I did not feel too comfortable on the bike, but we
improved and I was able to fight for pole right up until the
final moment. Rain tomorrow would not help us at all as it
would mean losing half the qualifying time.”
JORGE LORENZO, 4th
“I did not feel at ease on the bike at all as I was
finding it difficult to go into corners and I fell once I
had put the new tyre on and was pushing for provisional pole.
I don’t have any explanation for the fall as I was riding
as normal, but suddenly I lost the front end and found myself
on the ground. I almost never fall like that, but this time
I couldn’t avoid it. The weather didn’t help us
either as it was raining in the morning, while the wind was
causing problems on the corners in the afternoon.”
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