Portuguese GP - Round 2 - MotoGP
Estoril - Saturday April 16th 2005 - Official Practice

Alex Barros scores stunning pole, Troy Bayliss recovers well

The beaming smile on Alex Barros's face was replayed by every member of the
Camel Honda team today, as they awaited his arrival in the pits following his
perfect lap, bringing home the pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Fastest in all four of the practice sessions, Barros has demonstrated both
consistency and speed - improving last season's pole time by around seven-tenths
- and is confident for tomorrow's race. It is the fifth pole in the affable
Brazilian's career, after two whole seasons without a start from first place,
all the way back to Malaysia in 2002. Once back in the pits, the first one to
congratulate him was his teammate Troy Bayliss, who despite yesterday's painful
crash, rode at a good pace on race tyres. The Australian hope to make a good
start so he can repeat the great race he managed in Jerez last Sunday.

Sito Pons - Camel Honda

"It was a heart-stopping session, but in the end Alex was brilliant to have
pulled out such a daring lap. He deserves it, both him and the team, for all the
hard work they have put in this weekend. I am honestly delighted for this pole
position in just the second race of the season. The race will undoubtedly be
hard fought and difficult, but Alex has the pace to go well. I'm also happy for
Troy because he set a lap-time that isn't bad considering yesterday's crash. I'm
certain, knowing how determined he is, that in tomorrow's race he will give the
best of himself."

Alex Barros - Camel Honda - 1'37.202 Pole Position

"I'm really happy, that's easy to see, we've been going well all weekend.
Straight away we showed that we have a good base set-up in the bike, whilst
regarding the tyres, Michelin has helped enormously in getting over the issues
caused by the cold track surface, colder than during last year's race. In the
first forty minutes of the official session I worked for the race mostly, trying
to get the right rhythm for it, and just towards the end we stuck in a soft tyre
which allowed me to take this pole. I'm truly pleased for myself and the whole
team and I hope to have a good race tomorrow."

Troy Bayliss - Camel Honda - 1'39.033  13th position

"First of all "well done!" to Alex, he did an extraordinary lap. We found it
hard to get good grip, but I'm happy that I did my best lap with race tyres.
Tomorrow in the warm up we will try a couple of small modifications, but the
most important thing will be to get a good start so we can make the most of the
good pace we showed today with the harder tyres."