Qatar GP - Round 14 - MotoGP
Doha - Friday 30th September 2005 - Qualifying

Tough going for Camel Honda in Qatar

The qualifying session for the Qatar Grand Prix were particularly tough for Alex
Barros, who was unable to pick a suitable front tyre to improve his feeling
under braking. For the Brazilian rider it promises to be a particularly
challenging race from fourteenth position on the grid. Conversely, his team-mate
Shane Byrne was satisfied with the progress he made on his Camel Honda in its
race configuration, but missed out on using his last qualifying tyre by just a
few seconds, which meant he stayed in seventeenth position despite the massive
progress he has made so far.

Sito Pons - Camel Honda

"Alex began to have problems with the front tyre at the Malaysian GP. Since then
we worked intensively with Michelin to find a combination of set-up and tyre
which works well for him, but we cannot find any answers at the moment. He is
unable to enter the corner as he would like, and as he does so well; as such he
isn't quick. Shane is progressing in every session, and even though he is in the
same grid spot as in Malaysia, his times are much better, especially with race
tyres on, so I think that he can be a lot more competitive tomorrow than he was
in Sepang."

Alex Barros - Camel Honda -  1'59.084 - 14th position

"I don't have too much to say about these sessions because the situation hasn't
changed much since yesterday. The bike is going well, we've found a good base
set-up, and we have the  rear tyre set-up well, but we can't get a front tyre to
complete the package so I can ride fast. It's a real shame because there's not
much we can do in this situation. Even by changing my style of entering the
corner as much as I can, I still can't brake as hard as I would like, because I
would risk losing the front and crashing. Tomorrow will be a very difficult race."

Shane Byrne - Camel Honda -   2'00.097 - 17th position

"In this last practice session things went decidedly better. My lap times with
the race tyres are very close indeed to those I did with the qualifier in, and
they're consistent too. Obviously I couldn't make the most of the soft tyres. I
had three, and with the first I was slow. With the second I began to understand
how to get the best out of it, but then when I put the last one in, I realised
that there was no time left. Anyway, if I can get a good start tomorrow and ride
at today's pace consistently I should have a good race."