TNT Sports
De Puniet & Barbera win
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Published 13/06/2004 at 11:44 GMT+1
250cc championship leader Randy De Puniet emerged victorious from a nailbiting battle with home hero Dani Pedrosa to win his first race of the season at the Catalan Grand Prix. In the 125cc class, Hector Barbera fought back from 23rd on the first lap to s
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In a nail-biting final lap, the Aprilia overtook the Honda for the last time with less than half-a-lap to go.
De Puniet thus extends his overall championship lead to eight points over Pedrosa.
Toni Elias finished a distant third in a race where the leaders quickly blew past the rest of the field.
Consolation for Pedrosa comes in the form of a new Catalunya circuit record established by 0.283 seconds midway through the race.
The old 250cc record dated back to 1998 and belonged to a certain Valentino Rossi.
125CC: BARBERA'S RUN
In the 125cc race, Spain's Hector Barbera stormed to a dramatic win. After starting from the front row, he fell back to 23rd place at the end of Lap 2 before working his way back to the front.
Pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo had to settle for fifth.
Going into the last lap, Barbera, Lorenzo, Pablo Nieto, and Alvaro Bautista made it four Spaniards in front, but championship leader Andrea Dovizioso of Italy and Casey Stoner of Australia surged.
In the end, Dovizioso nearly overtook Barbera, but the Aprilia rider held off the Honda by a mere 16/1000ths of a second.
Pablo Nieto finished third ahead of Stoner, who falls back to third in the overall standings.
Barbera moves up to second in the championship standings on 74 points, 22 points shy of Dovizioso while Italy's Roberto Locatelli falls back to fourth overall after crashing out midway through the race.
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