MotoGP – The Italian Grand Prix 250 lap by lap –

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The Italian Grand Prix 250 lap by lap

MotoGP - The Italian Grand Prix 250 lap by lap -

After a first Italian victory in 125, the whole of Italy has its eyes turned to pilots like Pasini, Simoncelli, Locatelli or the returning Poggiali: Bautista, Debon and Barbera and others had better watch out: turn by tower.

Friday: first qualifying session (Friday)
Very comfortable on his land (even if he actually only lives a stone’s throw from … Misano!), Mattia Pasini is the most adept at playing in difficult conditions to win the fastest time ahead of Marco Simoncelli, Hector Barbera, Hiroshi Aoyama, Alvaro Bautista, Manuel Poggiali, Mika Kallio, Thomas Luthi, Karel Abraham, Imre Toth, Julian Simon and Lucas Pesek.

Saturday: qualifying session
Hector Barbera takes his third pole position in a quarter liter and even improves the track record in force since 2005 (De Angelis)! Behind the Spanish are Alvaro Bautista, Marco Simoncelli, Mika Kallio, Lucas Pesek, Manuel Poggiali, Alex Debon, Thomas Luthi, Mattia Pasini, Hiroshi Aoyama, Yuki Takahashi and Hector Faubel.

Zoom on…

The great form displayed by Hector Barbera : the 21-year-old Spanish driver, who already has four seasons in 250, needs a good result to get back to the title race after a timid start to the season: 2nd in Qatar, 5th in Jerez, 8th in Portugal , 6th in China and 12th in France.

Sunday: race !
Departure : Marco Simoncelli makes the best start in front of his home crowd but from the first braking, Barbera, Bautista and Debon appear from all sides to pass Gilera n ° 58 !

Alvaro Bautista emerged victorious from this first duel, while Marco Simoncelli elbows a little to follow the Spanish’s Aprilia! Alex Debon finds himself in third position, immediately attacked inside by a Hector Barbera determined to confirm his speed in practice! Behind the four men follow Takahashi, Pasini, Luthi, Pesek and Laï.

2nd round : Unable to pass the official Aprilia of Alvaro Bautista, Marco Simoncelli must resolve to remain in ambush behind the smiling Spanish … Hector Barbera is forcing himself to get back on the two leaders, trying to close a gap of 0.8 second by taking advantage of the clear track in front of him. Lucas Pesek is brilliant 4th after an impeccable pass over recent French GP winner Alex Debon.

Regarding the Spanish and his fabulous victory, Aprilia admitted having fitted the official bike of its rider with an anti-skid system (certainly with a view to testing it for the Superbike RSV4), which explains the ease with which n ° 6 played on the slippery track despite slick tires! The opportunity to see that if the quarter-liter category is living its last years (the Dorna having endorsed the idea of ​​a category of about 600cc for 2010), the development has not stopped for all that. !

3rd, 4th and 5th rounds : Alvaro Bautista still leads the dance in front of the hot Simoncelli, Hector Barbera who has almost returned to contact, Lucas Pesek, Alex Debon, Yuki Takahashi, Thomas Luthi, Mattia Pasini, Hector Faubel, the leader of the championship Mika Kallio (victim of a small error in the first turns), Julian Simon, Aleix Espargaro, Manuel Poggiali, Hiroshi Aoyama and Karel Abraham.

Hector Barbera beats his own lap record of 0.221 seconds, but seems to take a lot of risks to hasten his comeback: on several occasions, Team Toth’s Aprilia gives his driver hot alerts! Lucas Pesek lost a place and finds himself under the threat of Thomas Luthi … This one tries to make the brakes to the two pilots who precede him at the end of the straight line of more than 1100 m, but deviates generously at the chord point, cut the throttle slightly to return to a more normal trajectory and find himself fairing against fairing with the Czech Lucas Pesek: hot !

6th and 7th rounds : Bautista and his n ° 19 are already 0.248 seconds ahead of Simoncelli, even if the latter manages to get back into the winding: as in every duel that has opposed them since the start of the season, the Italian is faster when entering a curve, but loses again on acceleration and on long straight stretches. To compensate, the n ° 58 does not hesitate to use the entire trajectory, even going so far as to exit on a vibrator without cutting the throttle, despite a slight passage through the earth. !

However, the gaps are widening at all levels, since the Italian is now more behind. Barbera behind is already a second and a half behind, while Alex Debon is now more than four seconds behind the leading man !

The unfortunate Spanish lost two places in quick succession, since Luthi infiltrated under the black fairing of n ° 6, followed immediately by Pesek, better placed at the end of a sequence !

Despite his lead at the head of the race and his delay in the championship following several blank results, Alvaro Bautista once again made a mistake in a long left of the Tuscan circuit and retired … Announced as the favorite for the title this winter, the smiling n ° 19 shows that in motorsports, nothing is ever acquired…

8th and 9th rounds : Now alone in the lead, Marco Simoncelli crosses the timing line at the head of his national race! Warned of the fall of Bautista, Hector Barbera and his white Aprilia with red polka dots (!) Force again to go and get the Italian. Luthi is third ahead of Pesek, Debon, Takahashi, Pasini, Faubel, Aoyama, Poggiali, Simon and Kallio.

The championship leader must know some difficulties with his official KTM, because if his top speed is normal, his times are far from the possibilities of the Finnish…

For its part, the Mapfre Aspar team must begin to regret the trip to the Florence valley, since in turn Bautista’s teammate is at fault! Hector Faubel will not be able to leave either, adding a zero point to the score of the team of ex-champion Aspar Martinez … At the same time, we note the Aprilia of Lucas Pesek, forced to let go his best start to the race of the season, as well as that of Poggiali who was penalized in the same turn !

10th and 11th laps : Taking advantage of the excellent engine performance of his Aprilia 2008, Hector Faubel passes Simoncelli’s Gilera LE in the pit straight: it is difficult for a rider to lose all the benefit of the work done on the altar of engine performance. The n ° 58 does not let go however and sticks in the wheel of his Spanish rival.

Alex Debon came back to third in favor of overtaking Luthi while Pasini gradually climbed back up to the group in front of him. Carried by the clamors of the public, Marco Simoncelli takes place outside his rival at the exit of a right in order to approach the middle of the track, the left which immediately looms: unstoppable, the attack allows him to regain the lead race !

12th, 13th, 14th and 15th laps : Unable to compete with the top speed of his pursuer, Simoncelli delays his braking as much as possible at the end of the straight line and manages at the last minute to enter the first curve of the circuit! Unfortunately for the Italian, he absolutely has to find a strategy for the last lap of the race, because in these conditions, Barbera will overwhelm him just before the timing cell, located very far on the line….

Thomas Luthi regained third place and must dream of his first podium in the 250 category … Follow Debon, Takahashi, Pasini, Aoyama and Mika Kallio who returned slightly.

Hector Barbera continued to play cat and mouse, aware that the power of his machine would be enough for him to secure victory at the finish … Mattia Pasini lost two places and was relegated to eighth position, just behind Kallio. Alex Debon again overwhelms the young Swiss and signals to Luthi to stay behind him, certainly in order to take advantage of the superior power of his bike to catch up with the leading men! Will the 21-year-old rider accept this maneuver worthy of a cycling race? ?

16th round : Overwhelming his rival very easily in the substantial stretch, Hector Faubel returns to first position in front of a Simoncelli who no longer has to know what to do to escape this overpowered Aprilia !

In the third group, Mika Kallio quietly continues his ascent, aware that the men dangerous for the title have either gone wrong or behind him: once again, the Finn will take advantage of the mistakes of his rivals to score big points in the general.

17th round : Finally not taking into account the "indications" of Alex Debon, Thomas Luthi returns to the Spanish from the inside and recovers the coveted place on the podium !

The unfortunate Takahashi in his turn makes a mistake and his Honda is picked up in the gravel: another place won for Mika Kallio, who recovers big points that he might not have managed to regain on a regular basis as his late on the Japanese was therefore four laps from the finish…

18th round : Simoncelli passes Barbera in the 180 ° which commands the straight line, but the Spaniard passes it again with ease well before the finish line: the Italian is now perfectly aware of the dilemma that awaits him! Either he overtakes the Spaniard on the last lap and risks being overtaken in the very last meters of the straight, or he tries again to widen the gap to protect himself from the return of his opponent in the rectilinear part…

Machiavellian, Barbera cuts and turns around shortly before the last series, in order to let Simoncelli pass: the Spaniard will pass again before the line, and this despite an exit from the last corner much worse than that of n ° 58! The top speed difference is just amazing !

19th round : Hector Barbera lets himself be overtaken again in the 180 ° and Simoncelli rushes into the lead for the last loop !

Last round : Aware, after the many demonstrations of his rival, that he will not be able to keep his position to the line, Marco Simoncelli tries a sudden change of direction under the fairing of the Spaniard, in order to prevent him from entering his aspiration: disaster for the n ° 21 who did not expect at all this maneuver to say the least daring and which comes to block his front brake lever in the seat backrest of the Aprilia of n ° 58 !

The penalty is immediate: Barbera and his motorcycle are propelled into the air at more than 240 km / h and the pilot ends his fall in the grass, then against the wall of the edge of the track…

Fortunately, he gets up immediately, somewhat stunned, but above all disillusioned by this action of Simoncelli that he will judge later "dangerous and unjustified", he who had almost won the race…

Alex Debon is now second in front of Luthi who takes his first podium in 250.

Marco Simoncelli crosses the finish line on a wheelie, standing on his Gilera, in front of Debon, Luthi, Kallio, Pasini, Locatelli, Abraham and Aoyama.

Rank 250
1- SIMONCELLI M. 6- LOCATELLI R. 11- SIMON J.
2- DEBON A. 7- ABRAHAM K. 12- BALDOLINI A.
3- LUTHI T. 8- AOYAMA H. 13- LAVERTY E.
4- KALLIO M. 9- ESPARGARO A. 14- LAI F.
5- PASINI M. 10- WILAIROT R. 15- TOTH I.

Overall, Mika Kallio retains his first place 18 lengths behind Mattia Pasini and 27 behind Alex Debon! With their fall, Barbera and Bautista lose big and follow each other in seventh and eighth position.

They explain themselves

Marco Simoncelli (1st) : "I am the happiest man in the world! It’s great to get my first 250cc win here in Italy. The race was difficult, in the first laps Bautista was very fast and it was difficult to follow him. He made a mistake and I was able to overtake him. Then there was a tough battle against Barbera. Its motor was more powerful and I tried to stop it from taking the suction, but it was too close. I’m sorry for him, but I’m very happy with my result !"

Alex Debon (2nd) : "I am very happy, I did not expect this! We encountered a multitude of issues throughout the weekend. I am very happy with this result in front of the Aprilia crowd, it is thanks to the work of everyone that we were able to achieve this result, even if not everyone was able to come."

Thomas Luthi (3rd) : "It was a very difficult battle. I am very happy. We have been struggling to reach the podium for a year and a half. Alex is very strong, so I couldn’t get rid of him and a little mistake I made at the end of the race allowed him to pass".

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR and F. KIRN

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