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LOCATELLI STARTS ESTORIL BID FROM FRONT ROW Roberto Locatelli will start tomorrow’s Portuguese 125 GP – round 11 of the 2004 world championship - from the front row of the grid. The Italian rider finished this afternoon’s 30-minute final qualifying session with the fourth best time, his fastest time of 1.46.496s clocked yesterday good enough to keep his position on the front row of the grid. Remarkably it is Locatelli’s first front row start since he qualified fourth on the grid at round three of the series in Le Mans. Locatelli couldn’t get close to his best in today’s session as he managed a best of 1.47.771s, which was 1.2s slower than his best yesterday. The Safilo Carrera-LCR rider said: “I am a bit angry because yesterday we lapped with a good pace but today we didn’t go the right way. The session is too short to test many things and we made a mistake by changing the set-up too much on the bike. The race will be very close and I am ready to fight for the podium.” Torrential morning rain gave way to bright and sunny conditions for the decisive session, though it was still a tough challenge for riders with a gusting wind blowing in their faces down the long start/finish straight. Fellow world title contender Hector Barbera had a tough day as he managed to qualify in 10th position. He set a best time of 1.46.965s, which was a fraction faster than he’d managed during opening qualifying. The Seedorf Aprilia rider had a torrid time in this morning’s wet conditions. Barbera fell off twice but escaped injury and he will be looking for one of his famous surges through the pack in tomorrow’s 23-lap encounter. Other Aprilia riders expected to feature at the front of what promises to be another action-packed race will be Marco Simoncelli and Mirko Giansanti. They qualified fifth and sixth respectively. Forecasts suggest conditions will be much the same tomorrow, with early thunderstorms predicted before giving way to brighter conditions.
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