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.
Tomas Luthi took his Emmi Aprilia to fourth spot, followed by Alex Debon (Blusens Aprilia) and Hiroshi Aoyama, who also crashed his Scot Honda with ten minutes of the session gone.
Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia) will occupy seventh spot on the grid, ahead of Hector Faubel (Honda SAG), with Mike di Meglio (Aspar Aprilia) and Ratthapark Wilairot (Honda SAG) completing the top ten.
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Hector Barbera Aprilia 1m46.749s
2. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 0.150s
3. Marco Simoncelli Gilera + 0.159s
4. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 0.332s
5. Alex Debon Aprilia + 0.376s
6. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 0.417s
7. Mattia Pasini Aprilia + 0.476s
8. Hector Faubel Honda + 0.630s
9. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia + 0.677s
10. R.Wilairot Honda + 0.810s
11. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 0.847s
12. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 0.976s
13. Raffaele De Rosa Honda + 0.998s
14. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 1.046s
15. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 1.283s
16. R.Locatelli Gilera + 1.339s
17. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 1.352s
18. Axel Pons Aprilia + 3.701s
19. Steve Bonsey Aprilia + 3.849s
20. Valentin Debise Honda + 3.904s
21. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia + 3.983s
22. Bastien Chesaux Honda + 4.480s
23. Imre Toth Aprilia + 4.547s
24. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia + 5.384s
25. Toby Markham Honda + 6.107s