Late surge puts Bautista ahead in 250cc FP2

Hoping to do his part to make the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya this weekend a true Spanish fiesta, after finishing behind two Italian riders at Mugello a fortnight ago, standings leader Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team) appears to be in good shape at Montmeló.

The Aprilia star saved his best until last as Saturday morning’s proceedings came to a conclusion, going round in 1’46.122 on the last of his 24 laps to put himself nearly three tenths beyond second fastest participant Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia).

The 250cc category’s ‘big boys’ were out in force, with Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera), Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) and Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens) also in the top five, whilst Mike di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) were sixth and seventh respectively.

Local resident Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG), veteran Italian Roberto Locatelli (Metis Gilera) and Swiss rider Thomas Luthi (Emmi - Caffe Latte) also made it into the top ten.