Barcelona, 9 June: Qualifying for the Catalunya Grand Prix was run in heat wave conditions today, with Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa going unrewarded in his bid to improve his practice performance. Checa will start from 15th position for tomorrow’s 25 lap race, not the outcome the Spanish star was hoping for at his home event.

After a series of detailed meetings with the team and many set-up changes his Honda RC212V, Checa was confident that he had solved the set-up problems that slowed him in free practice. But as track temperatures soared to 45 degrees, Checa was disappointed with his qualifying time. Pole position was claimed by Valentino Rossi.

CHECA: Fifteenth - 1’43.729

CHECA: “This morning in free practice I had some confidence that our set-up was improving but with the qualifying tyre it was impossible to do better than this. We have changed everything on the set-up, but when I flick the bike it doesn’t want to turn, the front goes one way and the rear the other, the balance is all wrong. I’m still too far from the race pace so hopefully we can find some solutions for tomorrow. I didn’t imagine that things could be worse than yesterday, but that is our situation.”

In 250cc qualifying Irish rider Eugene Laverty recovered from a harmless crash in the morning free practice to qualify 23rd, with an impressive 0.84s improvement in his best time.

LAVERTY: “The bike is working well with a comfortable set-up, and I’m confident for the race. I lost ten minutes with a rear brake problem in the qualifying session so I could have been a little faster, and in the practice session some water leaked onto the rear tyre and caused me to crash.”