Sete a 'slightly bitter' second.

Sete Gibernau will attempt to put his Donington nightmare behind him from a strong second on the grid in tomorrow's German Grand Prix at Sachsenring, but felt a little bitter after failing to defend his provisional pole in the closing stages.

Gibernau would set his best lap on the 20th of his 30 afternoon circulations, and held pole until fellow Honda rider Nicky Hayden surged ahead by 0.104secs in the final minutes.

The Movistar Honda rider later put his failure to improve down to a suspect front end.

"We prepared well for the session, as we had for the three sessions before, but I can't deny a slightly bitter taste in my mouth over the result," admitted Gibernau, who crashed from the lead last Sunday in Britain.

"We had a few unexpected problems with the front end that meant I was unable to finish the job off with the qualifying tyre.

"I would have liked to set pole, but we have confidence in the good race pace we found today and will use the warm-up to have a look at what happened in the final few minutes. We hope to turn this year around, be fast and have a good race tomorrow," he added.

Hayden and Gibernau will be joined on the front row by Alex Barros.