250cc – Motegi FP1 – Marco Simoncelli surprises in the lead

In the first free practice session of the 250cc on the Motegi track Marco Simoncelli surprised everyone. Two weeks after his scaphoid injury, the rider from Romagna was able to set the best time of 1'53"093 with his official Gilera, ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama, who has always been very fast at Motegi.

Simoncelli's performance puts Alvaro Bautista in a bad light, third more than 7 tenths ahead of Mattia Pasini, who was also in the lead for a long time with the Team Toth Aprilia. Unfortunately the rider from Rimini suffered a crash at the end, but he still said he was optimistic when thinking about tomorrow.

Scrolling through the rankings you can see Hector Barbera in fifth position ahead of Raffaele De Rosa, first among the 125 rookies ahead of Gabor Talmacsi and Mike Di Meglio. The rider from Campania figures well among the Italians, with Roberto Locatelli ninth and Alex Baldolini 18th on the Aprilia of the WTR team. Official qualifying tomorrow.