Barros 'very happy' after qualifying

Barros put in an impressive performance in qualifying to qualify in seventh position, just two places and two tenths behind factory Ducati rider Loris Capirossi, bettering his previous best this season of eighth at Shanghai and Sachsenring.

"Today I'm very happy, because since the morning I have had a good rhythm, riding well in the dry and in the wet. This is my best wualifying position of the season, and I hope to make a good start and fight with those in the first positions."

The Brazilian feels confident of doing well regardless of weather conditions in tomorrow's race.

"The wind didn't bother me so much today, but for tomorrow everything is still a little bit up in the air, because we don't know if it will be a wet or dry race. In any case, I feel like I've got a lot of potential to do well here tomorrow."

His young teammate Chaz Davies didn't do quite as well as his experienced teammate, Davies competing in just his second MotoGP event.

He qualified on the last row of the grid in 19th position, but is hopeful changes he made in today's qualifying session will help him in the race.

"In the qualifying session, we tried some modifications that we think will make the bike work better for tomorrow's race. I'm having problems in two corners because they're quite bumpy which is making the front end move around as much as the back and I'm losing a lot of time there.

"Also, I'm still not able to take full advantage of the qualifying Bridgestones. For the warm-up, I hope to improve some things, since we've changed the bike a bit, and for the race I need to get a good clean start so I can recover positions as quickly as possible."