Spain Expects: “A Weekend of Sporting Possibilities”
June 25th, 2010
Football, Motorcycling and Motor Racing offer the chance for glory or pain for Spain this weekend. For the second consecutive weekend, Jorge Lorenzo has taken pole position in the MotoGP qualifying session. The Spaniard was over a quarter of a second faster than second place, Randy De Puniet, who is showing a great deal of improvement. Casey Stoner, suffering from some problems on his Ducati, was third, just under three tenths off the pace.
The other main Spanish hope for the Dutch MotoGp, Dani Pedrosa, who is currently third in the rider’s championship, finished down in seventh position, six-tenths behind Lorenzo. His team mate, Andrea Dovizioso, in second position overall, will start just ahead of him in sixth. The race proper will take place tomorrow at 2pm.
There was also good news in Valencia ahead of the tenth Formula 1 grand prix of the season, as home favourite Fernando Alonso went quickest in second practice this afternoon, ahead of the two Red Bull drivers, Vettel and Webber. Alonso battled with the Red Bull cars for much of the session, finally gaining the upper hand with a best lap of 1:39.283.
Alonso’s Ferrari arrives at Valencia this weekend with a number of aerodynamic improvements, that have so far had the desired effect and his F10 certainly seems taken a step forward in the fight for the 2010 World Championship. Alonso will be looking to confirm his pace tomorrow in qualifying, ahead of the full race on Sunday at 2pm.
However, most Spanish sports fans will have their full concentration on South Africa this evening, as Spain bids to qualify for the second round of the World Cup. It is a vital match with only a win against Chile, or result better than that of Switzerland against Honduras guaranteeing their place in the next round.
Spain are expecting to start the game with David Villa and Fernando Torres up front and, up to now, have never lost Chile – however that was the case with Switzerland before the tournament started (they lost 1-0) and it will be a tense game. The South African World Cup has already seen the big name teams of Italy and France exit from the competition and their manager, Vicente Del Bosque, readily concedes that past triumphs have no bearing on future success.
A huge television audience is expected, with Spain’s last match against Honduras being the 3rd most watched game in TV history and support from the fans at boiling point – the Prince of Asturias sent his own words of encouragement today, “we need to show a little determination and play as we expected to at the start the Cup, come on Spain!” he exclaimed during an acceptance speech today in Madrid.
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