French MotoGP: Alvaro Bautista puts himself on provisional pole for 250 race

Alvaro Bautista has put himself on provisional pole position for Sunday’s 250GP in France after the first qualifying session this afternoon.

Second going into tomorrow’s second qualifying session was Aprilia’s Alex Debon while Marco Simoncelli was third on his Gilera after putting in some impressive lap times right at the end of the session.

Hector Barbera was left pondering his route back to the pits after his Aprilia gave up early on in the session. The Spaniard pull off on the side of the track and then managed to find his way back to grab his spare motorcycle.

Alvaro Bautista was on the early pace after 10 minutes setting a 1:39.101.

Those not doing so well were Karel Abraham and Yuki Takahashi who both high-sided their motorcycles halfway through the session.

Bautista managed to knock 0.7secs off his time to post a 1:39.038 on his 14th lap with a quarter of an hour remaining.

With just over six minutes left of the session Marco Simoncelli put himself on provisional pole with as he became the first rider to post a time within the 1 minute 39 second barrier at 1:38.885. Bautista immediately did the same though with a 1:38.943.

Then within seconds Thomas Luthi just pipped Bautista into second by beating the Spaniard’s time by just a thousandth of a second. It was then a battle between Simoncelli on the Gilera and Aprilia’s Bautista as the pair swapped places of second and third until the end of the session.

The shock of the session was Alex Debon who put himself on the top of the timesheets on his final flying lap heading to the chequered flag to post a 1:38.479. But Bautista just kept on improving and his final lap saw him take provisional pole position with his final lap recorded at 1:38.479.

Ireland’s Eugene Laverty was down in 19th place on the provisional grid.

French MotoGP qualifying one results:

1 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team APRILIA 1’38.479
2 Alex DEBON SPA Lotus Aprilia APRILIA 1’38.585
3 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA Metis Gilera GILERA 1’38.679
4 Mattia PASINI ITA Polaris World APRILIA 1’38.788
5 Thomas LUTHI SWI Emmi – Caffe Latte APRILIA 1’38.942
6 Julian SIMON SPA Repsol KTM 250cc KTM 1’39.051
7 Manuel POGGIALI RSM Campetella Racing GILERA 1’39.064
8 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Lotus Aprilia APRILIA 1’39.184
9 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Red Bull KTM 250 KTM 1’39.197
10 Mika KALLIO FIN Red Bull KTM 250 KTM 1’39.360
11 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN JiR Team Scot 250 HONDA 1’39.446
12 Hector BARBERA SPA Team Toth Aprilia APRILIA 1’39.544
13 Lukas PESEK CZE Auto Kelly – CP APRILIA 1’39.798
14 Ratthapark WILAIROT THA Thai Honda PTT SAG HONDA 1’39.965
15 Roberto LOCATELLI ITA Metis Gilera GILERA 1’40.171
16 Hector FAUBEL SPA Mapfre Aspar Team APRILIA 1’40.182
17 Fabrizio LAI ITA Campetella Racing GILERA 1’40.293
18 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing APRILIA 1’40.455
19 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Blusens Aprilia APRILIA 1’41.056
20 Federico SANDI ITA Zongshen Team Of China APRILIA 1’41.200
21 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia APRILIA 1’41.365
22 Alex BALDOLINI ITA Matteoni Racing APRILIA 1’41.626
23 Doni Tata PRADITA INA Yamaha Pertamina Indonesia YAMAHA 1’42.847
24 Russel GOMEZ SPA Blusens Aprilia APRILIA 1’44.040
Not qualified (Out 107%) 1’45.372
Ho Wan CHOW CHN Zongshen Team Of China APRILIA 1’45.918