Second Row Start For Smith In Scorching Barcelona Bradley Smith will start from the second row of the grid as he defends a 3.5 Championship lead in the 125 cc class after a scorching qualifying session for the Cinzano Grand Prix of Catalunya in Barcelona this afternoon. In a hot afternoon for British riders both Scott Redding and Danny Webb will start from the third row of the grid for the 22 lap race while James Toseland confirmed his new found confidence by qualifying ninth in the MotoGP class.
It’s been a demanding weekend for 18 year old Smith round the 2.937 miles Circuit de Catalunya in scorching hot temperatures. On Friday he worked hard on tyre selection in very different conditions to the last two races and this afternoon finally qualified in seventh place with his Aspar team-mate and Championship rival Julian Simon taking his third pole position of the season.
Gloucestershire teenager Scott Redding has looked impressive all weekend but in the hectic few minutes at the end of the session dropped to tenth one place in front of brave Danny Webb. The 18 year old Kent-based rider crashed yesterday from his DeGraff Aprilia machine and lost the nail from the little finger of his right hand. Despite the pain he fought his way through to 11th.
Yorkshireman Toseland fresh from his top ten MotoGP finish in Mugello has shown good pace all weekend on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha. At the finish of the one hour session he qualified ninth fastest and will start from the third row of the grid alongside last year’s winner Danny Pedrosa and Frenchman Randy De Puniet.
Lorenzo and Rossi Seperated By 0.013th Of A Second The pace in the MotoGP qualifying session matched the heat with Fiat Yamaha team-mates Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi separated by just 0.013 of a second after a sweltering hour of action.
Lorenzo grabbed his third pole position of the season after a battle royal with World Champion Rossi. Both also produced some consistently fast times on their race tyres which suggests a tremendous battle in the 25 lap tomorrow, the sixth round of the MotoGP World Championship.
Completing the front row of the grid is World Championship leader Casey Stoner who found some extra pace on the Marlboro Ducati but will be looking for even more in the warm-up tomorrow morning before he defends that four point Championship lead against the Fiat Yamaha duo.
Lorenzo will not need reminding the last time three Spanish riders took pole position in all three classes was just six weeks ago in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. All three riders crashed out in their respective races.
