Italian MotoGP: Mattia Pasini snatches provisional home pole

Italy’s Mattia Pasini has snatched provisional pole position for Sunday’s 250GP from Marco Simocelli to the delight of his home fans in Mugello.

The Polaris World Aprilia rider is the only Italian on form in all three GP classes with Valentino Rossi not having such a good day in the MotoGP whilst Raffaele De Rosa was the highest placed 125GP rider at the end of their first qualifying session.

Pasini was the initial man on the pace setting a lap of 2:16.885 shortly after the start of the session and it took until the half way point before Hiroshi Aoyama made a real improvement on the lead time at 2:14.257.

Hector Barbera also flirted with the top time as he posted a 2:09.542 followed by a 2:08.131 before this morning’s fastest man Alvaro Bautista shaved another second off to post a 2:07.816 with nine minute remaining.

Bautista then crashed out of the session on his Aprilia on his next lap.

As the rain started to pour once again on the Italian circuit Marco Simoncelli put in a fast lap to shoot up the timesheets, but he was to be denied the provisional pole as Pasini took the glory on his final flying lap.

Italian MotoGP 250 qualifying one results:

1 Mattia PASINI ITA Polaris World APRILIA 2’05.711
2 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA Metis Gilera GILERA 2’06.638
3 Hector BARBERA SPA Team Toth Aprilia APRILIA 2’06.707
4 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Red Bull KTM 250 KTM 2’07.838
5 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team APRILIA 2’07.876
6 Manuel POGGIALI RSM Campetella Racing GILERA 2’07.911
7 Mika KALLIO FIN Red Bull KTM 250 KTM 2’07.929
8 Thomas LUTHI SWI Emmi – Caffe Latte APRILIA 2’08.462
9 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing APRILIA 2’08.521
10 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia APRILIA 2’09.289
11 Julian SIMON SPA Repsol KTM 250cc KTM 2’09.309
12 Lukas PESEK CZE Auto Kelly – CP APRILIA 2’09.790
13 Alex DEBON SPA Lotus Aprilia APRILIA 2’09.963
14 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Lotus Aprilia APRILIA 2’10.359
15 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN JiR Team Scot 250 HONDA 2’10.653
16 Fabrizio LAI ITA Campetella Racing GILERA 2’11.215
17 Alex BALDOLINI ITA Matteoni Racing APRILIA 2’11.881
18 Hector FAUBEL SPA Mapfre Aspar Team APRILIA 2’12.025
19 Ratthapark WILAIROT THA Thai Honda PTT SAG HONDA 2’12.087
20 Roberto LOCATELLI ITA Metis Gilera GILERA 2’12.211
21 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Blusens Aprilia APRILIA 2’12.914
Not qualified (Out 107%) 2’14.510
Doni Tata PRADITA INA Yamaha Pertamina Indonesia YAMAHA 2’18.418
Russel GOMEZ SPA Blusens Aprilia APRILIA 2’19.777