Simoncelli quickest in 250cc warm up

Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) is determined to bounce back from his home heartbreak at Misano with a good performance on Sunday in Portugal and he started raceday in good form, with the fastest lap in the 250cc warm up run.

The Italian star has had an inconsistent year but he has won three of the last five races, was on the podium in second place last season at Estoril and could yet have a say in the destiny of the title which currently belongs to him. Simoncelli’s 1’41.751s best effort put him in front in the early runout by nearly half a second.

In foggy conditions with low cloud over the Portuguese venue, which lies close to the Atlantic Coast, Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens) lapped second quickest, whilst Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Racing), Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) and Mike di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar) were all in the top five.

Poleman Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) lapped down in 11th place, with Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team) also apparently taking it easy in 17th.