Alhough the new Indianapolis asphalt may still not be to all of the MotoGP riders' liking, the lap times tumbled today at the Brickyard with a new pole position record of 1'38.850 going to Casey Stoner. Just 2.2 seconds separate the entire field and that is with virtually a full second covering the front row.
Like the majority of riders, MAPFRE Aspar man Héctor Barberá shaved a massive five seconds off his lap time from the opening free practice to this afternoon's qualifying. The Spaniard made positive progress throughout the weekend so far and was able to translate it into the tenth fastest time of the day, meaning he lines up on tomorrow's grid with just a single Ducati ahead of him and only 1.5 seconds off Stoner's pole lap. Front tyre wear continues to be an issue, however, and solving that could be the key to any further progress in tomorrow's race.
Héctor Barberá:
"We have a really good set-up now and that helped us get on the pace today. What is worrying me is that the tyres are completely destroyed after ten laps, especially the front. The rear tyre is a pretty obvious choice; it is just the front we need to decide so we'll work on that in the warm-up. We did a good job today and made more progress but I still think we have room for improvement and need to keep pushing. I had fun on the bike though and we have improved a lot from the morning to the afternoon so we'll keep going in the same way from here."
MAPFRE Aspar press release.
