Bautista holds out for third consecutive pole position

Alvaro Bautista took his fifth pole position of 2008 in a 250cc qualifying session that saw minimal improvements to the Thursday times. The Spaniard´s previous best of 1´39.510 remained unbeaten in the second grid-deciding run, with the Mapfre Aspar rider himself coming closest. Whilst it is another great qualifying result for Bautista, it does come with some baggage of it´s own: in the previous four pole-sitting races this year, the former 125cc World Champion has yet to taste victory.

The latest pole, in the last World Championship action of the day, meant that the polemen in MotoGP, 250cc and 125cc all remained the same as those for last weekend´s bwin.com British Grand Prix.

Also using his Thursday best to qualify on the front row was second fastest rider Hector Barbera, on the first line for the fourth consecutive race. The Team Toth rider ran off track in the second session, during which his fastest time was nearly a second slower than that of Bautista.

Marco Simoncelli made improvements to his times, but remains in third on the grid, whilst Alex Debon picked also picked up his pace to put himself on the front row and relegate Lotus Aprilia teammate Aleix Espargaro to the head of the second line. He took a long lowside into the gravel at the midway point of the session.

Thomas Luthi, Julian Simon and Lukas Pesek complete the second row for the quarter litre race, whilst World Championship leader Mika Kallio will once again face an uphill struggle from the eleventh spot.