MotoGP – The Grand Prix of Catalonia 250 lap by lap –

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The Grand Prix of Catalonia 250 lap by lap

MotoGP - The Grand Prix of Catalonia 250 lap by lap -

The atmosphere is at its height for the start of the 250: cracking several times since the start of the season, the local Alvaro Bautista must do everything to make up for his own … But Simoncelli, Barbera and Kallio are the asp ! Round by round.

Friday: first qualifying session
Dedicated to catching up on his blunders, the local Alvaro Bautista immediately won ahead of the astonishing Marco Simoncelli, Hector Barbera, Mattia Pasini, Hiroshi Aoyama, Alex Debon, Mika Kallio, Yuki Takahashi, Hector Faubel, Aleix Esparagaro and Ratthapark Wilairot.

Zoom on…

The incident between Simoncelli and Barbera, which cost a victory a priori promised to the second: if Simoncelli refuses to admit an error on his part and that the race commission did not deign to examine Barbera’s complaint for "unsportsmanlike" gesture, he does not do not hesitate to claim that the Italian knew what he was doing when he made his maneuver. To avoid this type of accident, some advocate the fitting of a plastic protection in front of the levers so that in the event of contact between two machines, the front brake cannot be actuated….

Saturday: second qualifying session
In front of his home crowd, Alvaro Bautista took pole position, without however breaking the track record set by Lorenzo in 2007. Having recovered the bike of said Lorenzo, Alex Debon interfered in second position followed by Hector Barbera, Marco Simoncelli, Mattia Pasini, Hector Faubel, Yuki Takahashi, Mika Kallio, Hiroshi Aoyama, Julian Simon and Roberto Locatelli.

Sunday: race !
departure : Alvaro Bautista emerged first from his pole position and presented himself on the first left with a slight lead. Roberto Locatelli made a magnificent takeoff from his twelfth position and rose to the height of Alex Debon, to whom he would have to give up second place. Follow in a pocket square: Takahashi, Simoncelli, Kallio, Luthi, Pasini and Barbera, determined to take revenge on his land…

Very motivated after his Italian victory (read), Marco Simoncelli is up to Yuki Takahashi at the start of the hairpin on the right and takes fourth place from the Japanese on his Honda.

In the process, the Italian on his Gilera taxes the third position at Locatelli and is outside Alex Debon: it will not pass for the n ° 58 who promises to be very competitive once again !

Hanging on by another driver, Roberto Locatelli fell in a very fast right: more fear than harm for the 33-year-old driver who recovered unscathed.

2nd and 3rd laps: Alvaro Bautista crosses the line in first position ahead of Debon and Simoncelli who is glued to the spider’s seat back! Taking advantage of the aspiration, the fiery Italian swerves and passes No. 6 at the start of the first left! Kallio, Barbera, Pasini and Luthi follow.

Resuming their usual "mano a mano", Simoncelli and Bautista exchange the lead of the race: faster again at the start of the curve, the Italian wins on a magnificent braking and immediately tries to escape.

Taking advantage of the power of his official Aprilia, Bautista regains his strength at the end of the straight line while behind, Hector Barbera (who has just completed the fastest lap in the race) brakes Debon and Kallio !

4th and 5th laps: Bautista still holds the reins of the race, followed like his shadow by Simoncelli and the astonishing Barbera, who came back very easily to the two drivers. Behind, the hole is made with Mika Kallio, Alex Debon and Thomas Luthi who are already a few lengths behind. Mattia Pasini is seventh ahead of Faubel and Julian Simon.

Russel Gomez stole the start: a hard blow for the 19-year-old Spaniard who will have to slow down through the pit lane … The battle for fourth place is hotly contested: Kallio, Luthi and Debon deliver a superb weapon pass under the greedy eyes of Mattia Pasini…

6th, 7th and 8th laps: Marco Simoncelli tackles the loop in front of Bautista and Barbera who have a four second lead over the next group, now led by the Swiss driver Luthi. Mattia Pasini has got rid of Mika Kallio and goes hunting for Luthi, himself ironed with authority by Alex Debon.

Taking the advantage with the power of his official Aprilia, Alvaro Bautista leads ahead of Simoncelli and Barbera. Karel Abraham fouls in a quick right after losing forward.

9th, 10th and 11th laps: The three leading drivers did not change order, grabbing tenth after tenth on their pursuers. Mika Kallio is still seventh ahead of Hector Faubel. Alvaro Bautista sets the best time in order to widen the gap on his cumbersome pursuers: a wasted effort, because Barbera immediately gives him the answer by setting the fastest lap, then it is Marco Simoncelli’s turn !

12th and 13th laps: Mika Kallio seems to have some difficulties with his KTM and struggles to keep up with Luthi, Pasini and Debon.

Alvaro Bautista still contains the assaults of Marco Simoncelli who gives everything to stay in contact with the overkill Aprilia n ° 19. Hector Barbera was slightly behind and is almost a second behind the two men. Alex Debon, fourth, is already eight seconds behind the leading group … The driver on his black Aprilia precedes Thomas Luthi, Mika Kallio and Mattia Pasini.

14th lap: Alex Debon has now widened the gap on his two pursuers who surrender blow for blow! For his part, Hector Barbera tries to come back and signs times very close to Bautista and Simoncelli: will the Spaniard have the necessary resources to try to pass the two pilots ?

15th, 16th and 17th laps: Mika Kallio took fifth place at the expense of Thomas Luthi braking from the pit straight line. Barbera returned in the wake of Alvaro Bautista and Marco Simoncelli.

The Italian sets the fastest lap in the race, putting a little more pressure on Bautista and at the same time releasing Hector Barbera, already two seconds behind !

18th and 19th laps: Alvaro Bautista crosses the line by signing the lap record, with the obstinate Marco Simoncelli in his exhausts! Thomas Luthi has passed Mika Kallio, who loses precious points in the championship. But his worries don’t end there: the recalcitrant KTM lets go of the Finnish driver in the middle of a turn, forcing the championship leader to return to the box !

His teammate Julian Simon is ninth ahead of Pesek and Willairot: a race to forget for the Austrian factory…

20th and 21st laps: Alvaro Bautista is a solid leader ahead of Marco Simoncelli, who does not let go of a sole and even seems a little faster. They preceded Hector Barbera, Alex Debon, Thomas Luthi and Mattia Pasini.

Bautista had the best lap and was only two tenths behind the track record (in race), set by a certain Jorge Lorenzo in 2007 !

Last lap: The n ° 19 widened a (very) slight gap on the Gilera who was chasing him, trying to shelter themselves from an attack in the last corners. Marco Simoncelli seems to have to settle for a second place, aware of the engine advantage of his rival’s Aprilia, but this one generously leaves behind at the entry of the 180 °, opening the door to Simoncelli who did not ask for it. not much ! Bautista returns immediately to n ° 58 and tries everything for everything in the aspiration of the straight line … but that is not enough and Marco Simoncelli signs his first double !

Mika Kallio retains the championship lead with 106 points against 103 for the winner of the day, Marco Simoncelli, while Mattia Pasini is third ahead of Alex Debon.

Rank 250
1- SIMONCELLI M. 6- PASINI M. 11- WILAIROT R.
2- BAUTISTA A. 7- AOYAMA H. 12- TAKAHASHI Y.
3- BARBERA H. 8- FAUBEL H. 13- BALDOLINI A.
4- DEBON A. 9- SIMON J. 14- POGGIALI M.
5- LUTHI T. 10- PESEK L. 15- LAI F.

They explain themselves

Marco Simoncelli (1st) : "It was a fantastic race! I am very happy, because this is the first time that I have lined up two wins! The race was very difficult because Bautista had a great pace, and I had a hard time staying with him. I pushed until the last lap, then I was able to win after Alvaro’s mistake"…

Alvaro Bautista (2nd) : "At the start of the race, I paid more attention to my trajectory than to my pace, then I pressed more afterwards. In the last lap, I wanted to fully exploit the turn, but I made a mistake: I went out a bit and then I couldn’t do anything to win … I wanted to win this race in front of my home crowd, it was important for me, but at least I’m happy to take more points than in the last race !"

Hector Barbera (3rd) : "We did a lot of testing with the traction control this weekend, and maybe not enough work on the tires. I am improving on this circuit, which I was not good at before. It’s not the result I expected, but it’s still a podium !"

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR and F. KIRN

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