Saturday, September 6, 2008

Barbera beats Simoncelli to pole

Aprilia's Hector Barbera beat Gilera's 250cc championship leader Marco Simoncelli to pole position ahead of tomorrow's San Marino Grand Prix at Misano.

The Spaniard set a fastest time of 1:38.047 with six of the 45-minute session still to go, to beat yesterday's provisional pole, set by his Italian rival, by 0.353 seconds.

Simoncelli today could improve on the time he set yesterday only on his very last lap, when with the time already expired he managed to get within eight hundredths of Barbera's time.

Seven tenths further back was Aleix Espargaro, third fastest with his Aprilia, with Yuki Takahashi's Honda completing the front row.

The second row of the grid sees the KTMs of Hiroshi Aoyama and Julian Simon sandwiching Thomas Luthi's Aprilia, followed by the other Aprilia of Hector Faubel.

Aprilia's Mattia Pasini qualified ninth, ahead of KTM's championship runner-up Mika Kallio in tenth, and the Aprilias of Alvaro Bautista and Alex Debon.

Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Hector Barbera Aprilia 1:38.047 2. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 1:38.124 + 0.077 3. Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1:38.813 + 0.766 4. Yuki Takahashi Honda 1:38.822 + 0.775 5. Hiroshi Aoyama KTM 1:38.869 + 0.822 6. Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1:38.961 + 0.914 7. Julian Simon KTM 1:39.009 + 0.962 8. Hector Faubel Aprilia 1:39.058 + 1.011 9. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1:39.130 + 1.083 10. Mika Kallio KTM 1:39.165 + 1.118 11. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1:39.217 + 1.170 12. Alex Debon Aprilia 1:39.402 + 1.355 13. Lukas Pesek Aprilia 1:39.749 + 1.702 14. Roberto Locatelli Gilera 1:39.828 + 1.781 15. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda 1:39.875 + 1.828 16. Fabrizio Lai Gilera 1:39.963 + 1.916 17. Eugene Laverty Aprilia 1:40.317 + 2.270 18. Karel Abraham Aprilia 1:40.360 + 2.313 19. Alex Baldolini Aprilia 1:40.732 + 2.685 20. Federico Sandi Aprilia 1:41.205 + 3.158 21. Manuel Hernandez Aprilia 1:41.513 + 3.466 22. Toni Wirsing Honda 1:42.620 + 4.573 23. Simone Grotzki Giorgi Gilera 1:42.756 + 4.709 24. Doni Tata Pradita Yamaha 1:42.992 + 4.945 25. Imre Toth Aprilia 1:43.841 + 5.794 26. Alen Gyorfi Honda 1:46.446 + 8.399

  • Bautista takes home pole in Spain
  • Simoncelli grabs provisional pole
  • Simoncelli snatches Brno pole
  • Ericsson takes pole at Brands Hatch
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