Bautista delights fans with Barcelona victory

Mapfre Aspar’s Álvaro Bautista extended his lead at the top of the 250cc standings to 12 points with a highly polished performance in a sunny Barcelona race, crossing the finish line seven seconds ahead of his nearest rival Hiroshi Aoyama.

The victory was made all the more sweet by the fact that World Champion Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) retired with a mechanical problem after crashing on the second lap, meaning that the Italian who clashed with Bautista in Mugello two weeks ago dropped to fifth in the standings and now trails the Spaniard by 47 points after six races.

As Bautista took his second victory and fourth podium of the year, Barcelona resident Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) brought his Honda home in second place at his ‘second home race’, beating poleman Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) on the last lap – the Japanese rider fighting back after looking like he had technical issues in the middle of the race. Aoyama consolidated his second place in the championship with his third podium of the season.

Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia) dropped in the final laps when looking like he would be on the rostrum again, ultimately finishing in fourth, 3.5s behind Barberá.

Another fight between ‘best of enemies’ Thomas Luthi (Emmi - Caffe Latte) and Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens) saw the Swiss rider make a late mistake to hand fifth place to the Spaniard.

A great ride from Roberto Locatelli from 16th on the grid into fourth position was ruined when he crashed out after 15 laps, to make it a miserable day for the Metis Gilera team.

Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG), Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing), Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Racing) and Héctor Faubel (Valencia CF - Honda SAG) were also top ten finishers.