Talmacsi top in first ever 250cc practice

Friday, 10 April 2009

Former 125cc World Champion Gabor Talmacsi was the quickest rider in his first ever 250 session at the Losail International Circuit on Friday evening.

The opening 250cc action at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar brought success for debutant Gabor Talmacsi who led the way by a small margin (0.041s) from second quickest rider Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar).

It was a good start to Talmacsi’s 250cc adventure and was good news for the Balaton Racing Team whom he rides for this year, under the Aspar group umbrella.

Title candidate Bautista, meanwhile, will also be pleased to have started the weekend in good form as he seeks to take maximum advantage of current World Champion Marco Simoncelli’s weakness due to injury.

Simoncelli himself bravely lapped 16 times, a remarkable achievement even if he was 16th on the timesheet and three seconds off the pace, given the surgery he had on Tuesday on the scaphoid bone in his right wrist - which he injured last weekend motocross training.

Behind Talmacsi and Bautista, Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia), Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) and Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) were also on the pace, lapping within half a second of the Hungarian.

The top ten also featured Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG), Thomas Luthi (Emmi-Caffe Latte), Jules Cluzel (Matteoni Racing), Lukas Pesek (Auto Kelly – CP) and Héctor Faubel (Honda SAG).