June 13, 2009
Hector Barbera has taken pole position for his home race, the 250cc Grand Prix of Catalunya in Barcelona. The Pepe World Team Aprilia rider set his best lap of 1m46.749s with four minutes of the three-quarter-hour session remaining, to beat fellow Spaniard Alvaro Bautista who held pole until then. The Aspar Aprilia man will start second, just nine thousands of a second ahead of rival Marco Simoncelli, who crashed his Metis Gilera in the gravel early in the session but managed to rejoin the track