Barberá secures pole to complete Spanish clean sweep

Saturday, 13 June 2009

Héctor Barberá was the third Spaniard to qualify on pole on home ground on Saturday at round six.

After his compatriots Jorge Lorenzo and Julián Simón took pole in the MotoGP and 125cc classes respectively, Héctor Barberá made it a Spanish clean sweep of the top grid spots in the 250cc category as Saturday’s Barcelona action came to an end.

Pepe World Team rider Barberá put in a 1’46.899 time on his Aprilia machinery, to head the grid - for the first time this season - by 0.150s in front of his fellow countryman and Aprilia rider Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team).

Barberá will try for his second win of the year on Sunday, whilst Bautista will also be trying for win number two of 2009 as he tries to maintain his championship advantage over Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) – who was uninjured after he crashed in the session and qualified third. The front row was completed by Thomas Luthi (Emmi - Caffe Latte).

Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) also crashed but qualified on the second row, behind Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens), and in front of Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia) and Héctor Faubel (Valencia CF - Honda SAG).