BARCELONA, 13 June 2004 — World championship leader Sete Gibernau claimed his third pole position in a row when he scorched his way round his home track in Barcelona yesterday to set a lap record for this weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix.
The Honda rider flew round the 4.7-km Circuit de Catalunya at an average speed of more than 165kph to post a time of one minute 42.596 seconds on his final lap of the session.
World champion Valentino Rossi had challenged Gibernau by dropping below 1:43 late in the session but his Yamaha was unable to match the power of Gibernau’s Honda and the Italian had to settle for second spot on the grid for today’s race.
American rider Nicky Hayden made a last-minute charge to complete the front row on his Honda, pushing Max Biaggi back on to the second.
MotoGP rookie Ruben Xaus, who like Gibernau hails from Barcelona, produced an excellent lap on his D’Antin Ducati to head the third row alongside John Hopkins’s Suzuki and Makoto Tamada’s Honda.
Australian Troy Bayliss was the fastest of the factory Ducatis and will be starting next to another former world superbike champion, Colin Edwards, on the fourth row.
But Bayliss’ Ducati teammate Loris Capirossi, who won last year’s race, had to settle for a place on the fifth row after suffering an early fall and then taking a detour on to the gravel.
After four races Gibernau leads Rossi by 10 points in the championship standings. Biaggi is a further four points back and has a comfortable 24-point cushion over Brazil’s Alex Barros.
Randy de Puniet of France set a pole record to lead the way in the 250cc class, with Spain’s Daniel Pedrosa, Argentine rider Sebastian Porto and Alex de Angelis joining him on the front row.
In the 125cc category 17-year-old Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, who broke the pole record in Friday’s qualifying, set the pace once again.
