Moto2: Bautista takes dominant home win
Alvaro Bautista took a dominant victory in his home race at Barcelona's 250cc Grand Prix of Catalunya
The Aspar Aprilia rider, starting from second on the grid, took the lead on lap three of the 23-lap race and never relinquished it, in the meantime opening a gap as high as eight seconds over the rest of the field.
Spaniard Hector Barbera did not manage to give the local crowd more reasons to cheer, as the Pepe Aprilia rider lost second place to Scot Honda's Hiroshi Aoyama on the last lap.
But Marco Simoncelli's crash on lap three seemed to make the grandstands erupt in celebrations. The Italian has often had clashes with his Spanish rivals in the past, most recently at Mugello a fortnight ago.
The Metis Gilera rider had just overtaken Barbera for second and was chasing Bautista, when he lost the rear and crashed in the gravel. He managed to rejoin in last place, but gave up and retired in the pits three laps later.
Mattia Pasini ended up fourth on the Team Toth Aprilia, after getting as high as second with ten laps to go.
Alex Debon (Blusens Aprilia) classified fifth, ahead of Thomas Luthi (Emmi Aprilia) and Ratthapak Wilairot (Honda SAG).
Karel Abraham (AB Aprilia), Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Honda) and Hector Faubel (Honda SAG) round up the top ten.
Roberto Locatelli crashed his Gilera while in fourth place on lap 16, a lap after Mike di Meglio went off in the gravel while in seventh place but managed to rejoin.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 41m09.018s 2. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 7.185s 3. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 7.282s 4. Mattia Pasini Aprilia + 10.784s 5. Alex Debon Aprilia + 15.740s 6. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 15.780s 7. R.Wilairot Honda + 28.654s 8. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 31.600s 9. Raffaele De Rosa Honda + 33.760s 10. Hector Faubel Honda + 33.843s 11. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 34.871s 12. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 35.117s 13. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 39.840s 14. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia + 42.821s 15. Steve Bonsey Aprilia +1m16.524s 16. Axel Pons Aprilia +1m16.689s 17. Valentin Debise Honda +1m28.826s 18. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia +1m39.488s 19. Bastien Chesaux Honda +1m47.958s 20. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia +1 Lap 21. Toby Markham Honda +1 Lap NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Rider Bike Laps Imre Toth Aprilia 21 R.Locatelli Gilera 14 Shoya Tomizawa Honda 13 Marco Simoncelli Gilera 6 FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1m46.656s on lap 9
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