Simoncelli in front in 250cc run but Debón is unfit to race

Marco Simoncelli led the way in practice in the 250cc class, setting a best lap of 1’36.568 ahead of Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) in cold temperatures at Valencia.

Metis Gilera rider and defending World Champion Simoncelli will now start from pole position on the grid. Alex Debón’s participation in the race was placed in serious doubt after he struggled out for the session following his late crash in qualifying on Saturday when he had already secured pole, and the decision was taken by the Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens rider to not race following Sunday’s warm up.

Bautista was next quickest behind Simoncelli, with Aoyama third as he prepares for the race in which eleventh place or higher would deliver him the 2009 World title.

Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) and Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Racing) registered top-five times as well, with Karel Abraham (Cardio AB Motoracing), Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG) and Héctor Faubel (Valencia CF - Honda SAG) inside the top eight. Valentin Debise and Shoya Tomizawa both crashed in the session.