MotoGP – The British Grand Prix 250 lap by lap –

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The British Grand Prix 250 lap by lap

MotoGP - The British Grand Prix 250 lap by lap -

During the tests, the weather did not upset the established order: Bautista, Simoncelli and Barbera announce the return of their usual game while Mika Kallio, little helped by his motorbike, will have a lot to do to defend his first place… Round by round.

Just like in 125 (read), the changing weather between Friday and Saturday will not allow the drivers to improve their times on Friday afternoon: good news for the Spaniard Alvaro Bautista, author of a remarkable lap to only 0.175 seconds from Jorge Lorenzo’s record pole in 2006 (read)! The Aspar team rider thus won his fourth pole of the season ahead of the strong man of the moment, Marco Simoncelli, and his "best enemy" Hector Barbera !

Thomas Luthi signs a very good fourth place, preceding the regular Yuki Takahashi, Hiroshi Aoyama, Julian Simon and Aleix Espargaro.

Zoom on…

The leader of the 250 championship, Mika Kallio : despite the best time of the second qualifying session, the Finnish driver will start from an anonymous 14th position following his poor performance on Friday: "we were completely lost yesterday! Then we changed our settings and solved the problem step by step. Today I’m fast in wet conditions and maybe it would be better for us to stay wet for the race"…

The race !

departure : Marco Simoncelli emerges like hell from his box and succeeds in extremis in tacking in front of Yuki Takahashi, Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista and Alex Debon.

Julian Simon leaves the middle of the track on the right after the descent and infiltrates under the wheels of Espargaro and Alex Debon at the entrance to the left which follows! On its way, the Spaniard is up to Alvaro Bautista, but he resists and makes the interior in Barbera! The pilot of the white Aprilia with red polka dots has barely enough time to notice that Simon’s KTM is already overwhelming him when braking the next turn. !

After his disastrous Friday practice sessions (see box), Mika Kallio is back on his competitors and is already in tenth position: will the n ° 36 be able to come back in contact with the leading men? ?

2nd and 3rd rounds : Marco Simoncelli crosses the timing line first, followed closely by the talented Takahashi, Bautista, Simon, Barbera, Debon, Aoyama, Espargaro and Luthi.

Alex Debon takes advantage of the excellent top speed of his official Aprilia to get rid of Hector Barbera who does not seem to be able to find his rhythm in these first laps. Mika Kallio continues to produce his effort and after easily getting rid of Thomas Luthi, he passes Aleix Espargaro from the inside: here is the Finnish 8th behind his teammate !

Alvaro Bautista had the best lap and took the opportunity to attack Takahashi: braking very late in the middle of the track at the first hairpin, the Spaniard managed to infiltrate under the fairing of the Japanese who resisted until the outside buzzer and finished the turn. side by side with his assailant! Badly placed to negotiate the second hairpin which conditions the pit straight, Bautista tries a big braking, but his Aprilia refuses to register on the angle and the n ° 19 is forced to widen, letting Takahashi pass and giving wishes in Julian Simon !

Immediately picking up his pace, the smiling protege of Aspar Martinez won the brakes on the pit straight line, imitated by Barbera who got rid of Julian Simon! The n ° 21 tries to make the brakes to Takahashi at the entrance of the chicane, but it widens and Simon takes the opportunity to pass it again immediately! The operation embarrassed Alex Debon, forced to slightly let go of the group.

4th 5th and 6th laps : Marco Simoncelli and his Gilera continue to lead the dance, but it is Alvaro Bautista who signs the fastest lap in the race, accentuating, meter after meter, his recovery on his Italian rival: the n ° 19 went from 7 to 4 tenths delay…

In decidedly excellent form, Julian Simon passed Yuki Takahashi when braking the line, then it was Hector Barbera’s turn a turn further !

Marco Simoncelli is now joined by Alavaro Bautista and the fight between the two drivers should start soon! Simon, Barbera, Takahashi, Kallio, Debon, Luthi and Aoyama follow. Mika Kallio passes Yuki Takahashi thanks to strong braking before the pif paf of the second part of the circuit: we feel that the Japanese have somewhat surrendered for two laps…

7th, 8th and 9th rounds : Simoncelli and Bautista are now 1.7 seconds ahead of the group of Simon, Barbera and Kallio: the Spanish team Mapfre seems to take his time before attacking his opponent, visibly scalded by his odds in the race, including his error during the last Barcelona GP! (read)

Mika Kallio takes advantage of a gap from Barbera to stay in the middle of the track when braking the first hairpin downhill and comes out in the exhausts of Julian Simon, whom he overtakes on the next turn !

Starting 14th, here is the Finn on the podium, demonstrating all the legitimacy that can be given to his first position in the world championship. The n ° 36 also punctuates its ascent with angry glides at the entrance of the very slow hairpins at the back of the circuit: Haga in World Superbike would certainly find nothing to complain about! Never mind: the KTM is however the fastest on the track and the Finn is already only three tenths from the circuit record set by Andrea Dovizioso in 2006! (read)

10th and 11th laps : Simoncelli is still taking Bautista in his wake, ahead of Mika Kallio and Hector Barbera by several good lengths. A little further, Alex Debon has just passed Simon who finds himself struggling with Thomas Luthi. Badly started since the start of the race, Mattia Pasini loses the front of his Aprilia at the entrance to the left of the chicane … and at the same time big points in the general where he was up to now third…

12th and 13th rounds : On the next lap, it is Alvaro Bautista who, in this same turn, manages to get the better of Simoncelli, after he got into a big heat coming out of the previous turn! Here is the Spaniard leading the race for the first time: his best strategy would be to escape very quickly to shelter himself from the pressure of his rival and his sometimes limited attacks. !

This will not be easy, however, because in the short pit straight, the Gilera LE (2007 factory model) and the official Bautista Aprilia are almost on a par! The opportunity to admire once again the performance of these machines with 2-stroke engines, whose future is seriously compromised today (read)…

14th, 15th and 16th laps : The two leading drivers continue to forget their little comrades, including the championship leader who is still more than two seconds behind despite very fast lap times. Barbera and Luthi are stalled behind, as is Julian Simon who lost his flamboyance at the start of the race.

Giving the reply to his rival, Marco Simoncelli manages to get back to the best of Bautista and proves once again that he is truly one of the strong men of the championship, despite a (light) withdrawal material !

17th and 18th laps : The Italian leads the race again in front of n ° 19, both tackling a boulevard to Mika Kallio and Hector Barbera! Thomas Luthi, solid fifth, turns in very fast lap times ahead of Debon, Aoyama, Simon and Takahashi.

Simoncelli and Bautista join the first lagging drivers and the two drivers overtake the lagging ones wheel to wheel! The opportunity to salute the consistency acquired by Simoncelli this season and his level of driving: even the charismatic Tech 3 team manager, Herve Poncharal, was not mistaken and admits having contacts with the Italian to ride in MotoGP next year ! To replace Edwards who are said to be in advanced contact at Kawasaki? Why not, since the president of IRTA also acknowledges being in contact with Mika Kallio and Sylvain Guintoli, who would certainly prefer to swap his Ducati Bridgestone for a Yamaha Michelin … Unfortunately, even if Tech 3 now enjoys a strong reputation thanks to to the results obtained this year, it will be difficult for Poncharal and his team to convince the Japanese to resume "Syl" in their ranks…

19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd laps : Alvaro Bautista is more and more pressing on the motorcycle of his rival and the Spaniard will end up getting the best of the Gilera under braking pif paf! Mika Kallio took the opportunity to come back in the wake of the two men, breaking the circuit record by more than two tenths. !

The Finn literally swoops down on Bautista: with five laps to go, the junction is still possible for n ° 36! Hector Barbera is now relegated to almost 3 seconds, still ahead of Luthi, Debon, Aoyama and Simon.

23rd and 24th laps : Bautista, Simoncelli and Kallio are now in a handkerchief: the finale promises to be breathless !

25th round : Alvaro Bautista signs the fastest lap in the race (0.370 seconds faster than Dovizioso’s record in 2006!) And tries to get rid of Simoncelli and Kallio, whom he knows to be formidable race finishers! Sensing the threat, Marco Simoncelli gives everything and tries a daring braking on the leader at the start of the last hairpin: the Italian puts too much brake on the angle and his Gilera generously moves away from the chord point, forcing the unfortunate Bautista to also expand !

Mika Kallio, who did not ask for so much, is once again offered victory on a plateau, as at the GP of Jerez where the two drivers were self-eliminated! (read).

Last round : Mika Kallio however proves all his talent by signing once again the fastest lap in the race and at this stage, it seems unlikely that Simocelli and Bautista could come back and challenge him for the victory! Simoncelli, however, continues to hang on to the end, while Bautista is a few lengths away: despite everything, the n ° 58 will not manage to deprive Kallio of his victory. !

The Finn takes advantage of his success to consolidate his leading position in the championship ahead of Simoncelli and Debon, who takes advantage of Pasini’s fall to steal his third place! Alvaro Bautista is seventh in the table, 54 points behind Mika Kallio.

They explain themselves

Mika Kallio (1st) : "Before the race, I did not expect to have a chance to win. We had a lot of problems on Friday and Saturday and this morning the settings weren’t working very well. We didn’t make a lot of changes, we got off to a good start and quickly moved up to third place. I caught up with Bautista and Simoncelli when they were in front, gaining tenth by tenth being much faster in some sections. They made a mistake and that made it a lot easier for me !"

Marco Simoncelli (2nd) : "It was of course a difficult race because of the wind. It was hard to pick up the right pace in the first laps. Little by little, I tried to improve my pace and I went faster and faster. Two laps from the finish, I tried to get past it, but I was late. I started too wide … I’m sorry for Alvaro, but I wanted to win !"

Alvaro Bautista (3rd) : "Regarding the incident it was not in my opinion the best way to overtake, nor even the right place. I kept the line and it was very windy at the start, the bike was moving a lot. However, I gradually gained confidence. Two laps from the finish, Marco passed me in an inconsistent way and afterwards, I couldn’t get back to Kallio or him. I’m happy to be on the podium, but I didn’t like Simoncelli’s maneuver"…

Rank 250
1- KALLIO M. 6- AOYAMA H. 11- LOCATELLI R.
2- SIMONCELLI M. 7- DEBON A. 12- ABRAHAM K.
3- BAUTISTA A. 8- SIMON J. 13- PESEK L.
4- BARBERA H. 9- TAKAHASHI Y. 14- POGGIALI M.
5- LUTHI T. 10- ESPARGARO A. 15- FAUBEL H.

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR and F. KIRN

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