Hiroshi Aoyama and Hector Barberá spoiled the party for the Italian riders at their home racetrack today, battling the heat to take the top two positions on a grid that sees the first eight riders covered by less than a second. Whilst is still clearly all to play for tomorrow it seems Aoyama, with his Honda looking more suited to the circuit than the Aprilias of Barberá and Álvaro Bautista who will do battle with the Spanish pair and local heroes Marco Simoncelli and Mattia Pasini.
Mike Di Meglio will also hope to join the battle after qualifying fifth on the grid, despite front-end problems with his Aprilia in some of the corners. The Frenchman got progressively quicker and clocked a best time of 1’39.397 on his penultimate lap to give him genuine hope of a podium challenge from the second row. His team-mate Álvaro Bautista suffered contrasting fortunes today and despite being amongst the pacesetters in this morning’s free practice he lost touch in the afternoon and could do no better than eighth. Once again struggling in T4, the Spaniard is hoping to make progress in warm-up and prepare another charge through the pack like the one he produced here last year, when he took victory from eleventh on the grid.
It was a positive day for Balatonring rider Balázs Németh, who continued to make progress with an improved showing in the morning, although he was unable to match that performance in the afternoon. Struggling to perfect his braking markers in some of the tricky Misano turns, the Hungarian was otherwise comfortable and did manage to improve his lap time with his final effort – lifting him to nineteenth on the grid.
5th Mike Di Meglio 1.39.397 (18 laps):
“Things went pretty well, especially this morning, but we’re still struggling to find a set-up that gives me full confidence in the front-end of my Aprilia. I can’t control the bike in corner entry and it’s as if I’m going to crash every time, so it’s costing me a few tenths. It’s not a serious problem because I was able to ride okay in both sessions and I’ve qualified fifth – the only thing is I had to take a lot of risks for that lap time and that’s a worry. Our pace is not quite as good as the guys at the front so hopefully we can work something out in the warm-up.”
8th Álvaro Bautista 1.39.825 (23 laps):
“To be honest I don’t know why we were able to set 39.5s this morning and not this afternoon. For some reason in qualifying I couldn’t get the front to turn into the corners but we haven’t changed anything from the morning – I don’t know what it is but we’ll have to examine it tonight. Tomorrow’s race is at the same time as free practice today so hopefully my Aprilia works the same and I’m comfortable on it. It’s nothing to worry about but we do need to make sure we cover all bases. I felt confident this morning so I’m disappointed with the grid position because I hoped for much more so hopefully we can solve our problems in the morning and be in good shape for the race.”
19th Balázs Németh 1.42.092 (21 laps):
“To be honest I’m quite happy with my performance but not with the result. I did a good job together with the team this morning and felt comfortable on the bike, improving my lap times. I tried to continue that in the afternoon and felt just as comfortable but the times didn’t come. The gap to the top fifteen is not huge so it’s a case of getting into that group and doing everything I can to pick up points. I’m confident that things are going much better for us here than at Indianapolis and think it will be easier for me to follow the guys in front of me here. The conditions are quite tough because of the heat and the wind, which is making it difficult for me to hit my braking markers, but I’m sure that despite all that I can have a good race tomorrow.”
