GRAND PRIX OF FRANCE
Qualifying practice / THIRD PLACE FOR HECTOR BARBERA
AND THE SECOND ROW FOR JORGE LORENZO IN EIGHTH
Hector Barbera will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of
France on the front row having ended the second day of qualifying
at the Le Mans circuit in third place, but team-mate Jorge
Lorenzo will start from the second row after suffering a crash
on his way to eighth place. Barbera, on a day of strong winds,
could not improve his time from Friday but still held on to
third spot with just Andrea Dovizioso and Alex de Angelis
ahead of him and was one of only four riders to break the
1’40 mark. For his part, Lorenzo suffered his second
crash of the weekend after pushing hard for pole. The Mallorcan
rider had just put new tyres on but hit the ground after being
held up by a back-marker whilst on a flying lap. The two FORTUNA
APRILIA riders will hope to progress in the warm-up tomorrow
and then fight for the podium places in the race.
HECTOR BARBERA, 3rd 1’40.257, + 0’524
seconds, 20 laps
“I am quite happy because I managed to go fast on a
day that the strong winds made very difficult. We changed
various parts of the set-up and that worked well for us. I
hope that tomorrow, if the forecasts are correct, that we
will race in dry conditions and that we will continue to be
competitive. The victory in China has given me a lot of confidence
and we have worked hard all weekend. Tomorrow I hope to get
on to the podium for the third consecutive time and fight
for victory right until the end.”
JORGE LORENZO, 8th 1’40’293, + 0’560
seconds, 21 laps
“It seems that when I get on a bad run I just can’t
shake it off. I am not used to falling and this weekend it
has happened twice. This second time was the fault of a rider
who was going very slowly on the racing line when I was on
my flying lap. Tomorrow I hope to win and forget about all
the negative things that have happened since Turkey. Although
I am starting a way down I have to think about winning, I
don’t have any excuses and need to sort things out as
soon as possible."
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