Bautista wins thrilling 250cc battle of Misano

Alvaro Bautista picked up a third victory of 2008 and 25 points for his 250cc title fightback in an edge-of-seat showdown in Misano. The Spaniard had a dream race, winning from the third row of the grid and seeing some of the big names in the category fall by the wayside.

Despite having to fight past some tough riders, Bautista perhaps had the most reserved race of those in the leading pack. The Mapfre Aspar rider somehow managed to avoid some big crashes and hard overtaking moves that caught out some of the expected challengers for the win, moving himself up to third in the overall classification and just a point behind Mika Kallio.

Yuki Takahashi was another rider who managed to steer clear of trouble, and got off to a fantastic start from the front row. JiR Team Scot´s Japanese star took his best result of the year with the runner-up spot behind Bautista.

One man never far away from the action in Misano was final podium finisher Hector Barbera, who was involved in some of the key incidents of the race. He twice ran wide with rival Marco Simoncelli as they engaged in a 250cc game of `chicken´, and also did little to endear himself to the San Marino faithful as his fight with Mattia Pasini ended with the home rider taking a huge crash on turn twelve of lap eleven. The Italian escaped unhurt, but obviously upset with Barbera.

Roberto Locatelli was the highest placing Italian rider in an impressive showing for the Metis Gilera man, coming home fourth ahead of Repsol KTM´s Julian Simon. Series leader Simoncelli emerged unscathed from his battle with Barbera, but crashed of his own accord on lap 21 to rule himself out of the podium fight. He eventually came home in sixth.

Thomas Luthi, Ratthapark Wilairot, Lukas Pesek and Karel Abraham were the other four riders in the top ten, which did not include Red Bull KTM riders Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama. They collided on the second lap, leading to some heated discussion in the garage in the aftermath of a race without points for either rider.