Unfavourable weather conditioned this afternoon’s qualifying session in preparation for tomorrow afternoon’s Dutch TT in Assen. Persistent rain throughout the afternoon forced MotoGP riders to go on to the track with a wet set-up and could not continue with the dry set-up work that began yesterday. For both Pramac d’Antin riders, it was a good day. Both achieved good lap times and a good feeling with wet Bridgestone tyres and Ducati bike, which leaves the team encouraged in case tomorrow’s race is held in wet conditions.
Alex Barros had some bad luck during the afternoon session and will start his race from the fourth row, but the Brazilian is confident to be able to obtain a good result thank s to the good feeling he had with his Desmosedici.
German Alex Hofmann was in an excellent fourth position up to the last lap but ultimately ended the qualifying session with the eighth fastest time, a consequence of heavy traffic on track that forced him to slow and make a mistake in the last turn.
Alex Barros (1’50.402 – 21 laps): “My time isn’t really good, but at the same time I’m satisfied because the bike is very good and I have the right feeling both with wet and dry set-up. I think I was unlucky because when I went out on track it started to rain a lot and I could not drive with full confidence, then when I went back into the box, the rain reduced. I could have profited from these conditions, but I was unfortunately not able to get back out on track immediately. Despite my position on the starting grid, I’m convinced that we have a good possibility to perform well in all kind of weather conditions tomorrow.”
Alex Hofmann (1’49.927 – 22 laps):“I’m very satisfied because I have a really good feeling with my bike. The Bridgestone tyres and the bike have both worked very well today and since the beginning I have had a good feeling. For this reason, I made a lot of fast laps, then during the last laps of qualifying, there was a lot of traffic on the track as all riders tried to better his lap time, so I had to back off and I also made a mistake, which lost me four positions on the grid. The third row is not so bad to start the race, but I am sure I could have reached the front row today, so I am a bit disappointed. Anyway, I’m confident for tomorrow and I hope to do good race.”
Official Time:1. Chris Vermeulen: 1’48.555
2. Casey Stoner: 1’48.572
3. Randy de Puniet: 1’49.579
4. Marco Melandri: 1’49.679
5. John Hopkins: 1’49.684
8. Alex Hofmann: 1’49.927
12. Alex Barros: 1’50.402
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