Pasini earns home victory in Italian rain

As the rain poured down in Tuscany the 250cc riders did battle on a wet track at round five, with Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia) eventually coming out on top by a 0.117 margin from second placed Marco Simoncelli – who he brilliantly held off on the final lap.

A big incident with ten laps to go saw title rivals Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar) and Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) clash at high speed, with both riders running off track when Bautista held the lead – Pasini pushing through to take over at the front and Bautista eventually finishing third.

Race direction were investigating the incident after the race to decide whether there would be any punishment for aggressive riding.

Thomas Luthi (Emmi - Caffe Latte) finished a distant fourth, 24 seconds behind Pasini, to go some way to make up for his Le Mans disappointment. Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) was fifth, three seconds behind the Swiss rider.

Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) lost ground in the championship in sixth place, whilst Spaniards Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens) and Héctor Faubel (Valencia CF - Honda SAG) were joined in the top ten by Italian pair Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Racing) and Roberto Locatelli (Metis Gilera).