Barros celebrates birthday with provisional pole
Robert Smith, Agence France-Presse, Phillip Island, Australia
Brazilian Alex Barros wrestled fierce winds on his Honda four- stroke bike on Friday to celebrate his birthday in style with provisional pole for Sunday's Australian MotoGP here.
Barros, 32, lining up for his third Grand Prix on the powerful four-stroke machine, zipped around the Phillip Island track in a best lap time of one minute 33.002 seconds with a top speed of 172kmh (107mph).
He had 0.150sec to spare over Australian Yamaha rider Garry McCoy (1:33.152) and Britain's Jeremy McWilliams on a Proton (1:33.215).
Newly crowned world champion Valentino Rossi was fifth quickest on his Repsol Honda with a best lap of 1:33.411 and fellow Italian Max Biaggi, second in the championship, was eighth fastest with 1:33.586.
Barros, who fended off Rossi to register his first victory of the season at Motegi in Japan on October 6, is set to ride in his 150th consecutive MotoGP/500cc race on Sunday.
"I could have gone even faster because the wind was troubling me a lot," Barros said.
"It was difficult to open the throttle on the exit of the corner because the wind was making it unstable.
"But I am on (provisional) pole and it is definitely the best birthday present anyone could gave given me."
Rossi, who is a whopping 121 points clear of Biaggi after 10 wins and three second placings this season, again experienced mechanical problems with his Repsol Honda.
"The clutch problems we have been suffering in the last few races seem a little better now," the flamboyant 23-year-old said.
"The bike does not feel exactly the same as at the beginning of the year, but it is beginning to feel more like it."
Rossi believed his four-stroke bike was starting to sweep faster into some corners, which plagued him at the last two races in Japan and Malaysia.
"The wind had a big effect today. I could only use the throttle 60-70 percent because if I went in too hard the front of the bike would lift," Rossi said.
Rossi has a chance of equaling Australian Mick Doohan's most wins in a MotoGP/500cc season of 12 in 1997 with victories at Phillip Island on Sunday and the final race in Valencia on Nov. 3.
Biaggi, who is jousting with Japan's Tohru Ukawa and Barros to finish the season runner-up behind Rossi, is looking for calmer conditions in Saturday's second and final qualifying session to claim a prominent position on Sunday's starting grid.
"The wind really knocked me and the bike around, so it's difficult to tell whether the small changes we keep making to the bike's set-up are actually working," Biaggi said.
"We've already made the bike better since this morning's free practice session so I'm not really worried and we hope to do better, and hope it doesn't rain."
Biaggi set the fastest lap in last year's corresponding race and was beaten off the pole in a split-second finish by Rossi, but he has a tremendous record around the sweeping exposed circuit.
He won the 2000 race from Loris Capirossi and Rossi and was runner-up to Tadayuki Okada the previous year.
Aussie McCoy, only one of nine riders astride the soon-to-be- extinct two-stroke bikes, thrilled his home fans with the second- fastest lap time.