Porto continues impressive form

Porto continues impressive form

Sebastián Porto picked up where he left off in the 250cc class, following on from a perfect weekend in Qatar where he dominated every practice session and won the race.

Today Porto again proved too hot for the rest of the quarter-litre field to handle, including series leader Dani Pedrosa, who was left 0.704 seconds adrift of the Argentinean's provisional pole time. Pedrosa gets his first chance of winning the World Championship on Sunday but must beat Porto by at least eight points in order to secure the crown.

The title-chasing pair are joined on the provisional front row by Alex de Angelis, who was impressive throughout the session and led the time sheets on several occasions, and Toni Elías, the winner and pole-setter from the race last year. Randy de Puniet, who still has a mathematical chance of winning the title, provisionally qualified sixth fastest.

Hiroshi Aoyama lies one place ahead of De Puniet on the provisional second row in fifth place, with Fonsi Nieto and Franco Battaini also making the top eight. Marcellino Lucchi, who replaces Manuel Poggiali on the factory Aprilia this weekend at 47 years of age, provisionally qualified twelfth fastest.