The MotoGP World Championship circus travels directly from Japan to Jerez de la Frontera this weekend for the first of three races on Spanish soil in 2009. The first back-to-back sequence of races sees the series return from Asia to the ‘old-continent’ for a two-month Euro road trip that takes in five races before the premier-class teams and riders head for Laguna Seca. The opening two rounds of the 250cc season have both been won by Spanish riders, whetting the appetite for a home battle in front of the partisan crowd in Andalucia this weekend.

Mapfre Team rider Álvaro Bautista travels to Jerez as the championship leader, looking to continue his good early season form. After making a disappointing start to the last campaign, Álvaro has started out in determined fashion this time around and is making good use of a productive preseason. His team-mate Mike Di Meglio is also hoping to reap the fruit of the seeds sown at the Spanish circuit during winter testing as he continues to put into practice each valuable new lesson learnt during his rookie campaign. It has been a mixed start for the Frenchman, who took a podium on his debut in Qatar before an unlucky crash in Japan, but the Mapfre man will be aiming for a return to his best form on Sunday.

Álvaro Bautista: “After the win in Japan I’m feeling happy, strong and confident about going to Jerez this weekend and picking up another good result. I hope that there can be a group of Spanish riders running at the front and putting on a good show for the home supporters. Discounting Qatar, where our performance was severely affected by the conditions, I think we’ve started the championship well and I’m convinced that all the set-up work we did in the winter will help us be competitive from Friday. Whatever happens, racing at Jerez is always special, I don’t know why but feeling the support from the fans in every corner somehow brings out the best in a rider and helps you to win.”

The warmups for the lower cylinder categories were dry affairs in Motegi, but rainfall in the MotoGP outing left a difficult track for the 250cc teams. After a dry 125cc race, it was the turno f the 250cc riders to try their luck at the Grand Prix of Japan, a race won by Mapfre Aspar rider Álvaro Bautista from Hiroshi Aoyama and Mattia Pasini. Last year’s winner Marco Simoncelli suffered a puncture and was unable to claim points.

Álvaro Bautista lost positions at the start of the race, but rushed back into the fight for the win with a determined effort. In just a handful of laps the Spaniard was up challenging Hiroshi Aoyama, whilst Marco Simoncelli withdrew from the fight with a puncture and left the two to duel it out. After passing the Honda rider Bautista clocked the fastest lap of the race -1’54.047 with three laps to go, and took the chequered flag first. He now leads the World Championship heading to his home race at Jerez.

1st Álvaro Bautista: “It was a rather difficult race for us, because we had nearly no practice time on Friday and Saturday. I started quite badly and had some riders on top of me on the opening corners, but soon I managed to get past and knew that I couldn’t let Simoncelli escape. When I got up to third myself, Simoncelli and Aoyama were all together, and it was then that the wind picked up. Marco had a problem and that left myself and Aoyama, and I gave it my all to pass him. I am very satisfied with this result, and I think that it is an important victory that allows us to arrive at Jerez with our heads high. We have some good data for the race from preseason, and I hope to continue this way to give a win to the home fans.”

Pos | Rider | Nation | Team | Total time | Gap

1 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team 44’06.488
2 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Scot Racing Team 250cc 44’12.377 5.889
3 Mattia PASINI ITA Team Toth Aprilia 44’28.320 21.832
4 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Balatonring Team 44’32.394 25.906
5 Alex DEBON SPA Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 44’37.273 30.785
6 Shuhei AOYAMA JPN Harc-Pro 44’40.276 33.788
7 Lukas PESEK CZE Auto Kelly – CP 44’43.460 36.972
8 Thomas LUTHI SWI Emmi – Caffe Latte 44’47.506 41.018
9 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 44’48.137 41.649
10 Shoya TOMIZAWA JPN CIP Moto – GP250 44’59.351 52.863
11 Hector BARBERA SPA Pepe World Team 45’07.376 1’00.888
12 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA Scot Racing Team 250cc 45’12.835 1’06.347
13 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia 45’59.637 1’53.149
14 Kazuki WATANABE JPN Bardral Racing with SJ-R 44’08.992 1 Lap
15 Vladimir LEONOV RUS Viessmann Kiefer Racing 44’36.925 1 Lap
16 Bastien CHESAUX SWI Racing Team Germany 44’41.786 1 Lap
17 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA Metis Gilera 44’59.056 1 Lap
18 Aitor RODRIGUEZ SPA Milar – Juegos Lucky 45’22.675 1 Lap

Not classified
Ratthapark WILAIROT THA Thai Honda PTT SAG 35’00.695 5 Lap
Alex BALDOLINI ITA WTR San Marino Team 33’15.734 6 Lap
Hector FAUBEL SPA Valencia CF – Honda SAG 11’47.466 17 Lap
Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 9’46.700 18 Lap
Axel PONS SPA Pepe World Team 6’12.705 20 Lap
Jules CLUZEL FRA Matteoni Racing 4’05.545 21 Lap
Roberto LOCATELLI ITA Metis Gilera 4’05.665 21 Lap

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap

1 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 2’04.005
2 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’04.470 0.465
3 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’04.493 0.488
4 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 2’04.544 0.539
5 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 2’04.734 0.729
6 Gabor TALMACSI Balatonring Team 2’05.008 1.003
7 Hector FAUBEL Valencia CF – Honda SAG 2’05.185 1.180
8 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 2’05.303 1.298
9 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 2’05.319 1.314
10 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 2’05.555 1.550
11 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 2’05.559 1.554
12 Shuhei AOYAMA Harc-Pro 2’05.580 1.575
13 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 2’05.581 1.576
14 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 2’05.975 1.970
15 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2’05.998 1.993
16 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 2’06.020 2.015
17 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 2’06.035 2.030
18 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 2’06.337 2.332
19 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 2’06.439 2.434
20 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 2’06.464 2.459
21 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 2’06.790 2.785
22 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 2’10.507 6.502
23 Bastien CHESAUX Racing Team Germany 2’11.824 7.819
24 Aitor RODRIGUEZ Milar – Juegos Lucky 2’12.035 8.030
25 Kazuki WATANABE Bardral Racing with SJ-R 2’21.083 17.078

The unpredictability of the weather once again worked against the MotoGP World Championship today as the second day of the Grand Prix of Japan was hit by unrelenting rain. This morning’s free practice session was riddled with crashes and with the track conditions worsening ahead of afternoon qualifying, all track action was cancelled and the grid positions for all three classes were decided by the combined free practice classification. Mapfre riders Álvaro Bautista and Mike Di Meglio, third and eighth fastest respectively in yesterday’s dry – and consequently faster – session, will start from those same positions in tomorrow’s second round of the 250cc campaign.

3rd Álvaro Bautista 1.53.836: “Whenever this happens you always regret not pushing harder in the first session but we’re on the front row and that will be important for us to make up positions in the first part of the race. I think we have a good setting for any condition so we just have to wait now and see what state the track is in tomorrow. I felt good in the wet practice this morning – I just had a visibility problem towards the end and couldn’t continue to improve my lap time, but the feeling with the bike was good. The objective will be to go out and give 100%, run at the front and take care to judge the track conditions correctly.”

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap

1 Hector FAUBEL Valencia CF – Honda SAG 2’07.824
2 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2’08.105 0.281
3 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 2’08.147 0.323
4 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 2’08.171 0.347
5 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 2’08.418 0.594
6 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 2’08.633 0.809
7 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 2’08.654 0.830
8 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’08.923 1.099
9 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 2’08.951 1.127
10 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 2’09.095 1.271
11 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’09.106 1.282
12 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 2’09.197 1.373
13 Gabor TALMACSI Balatonring Team 2’09.210 1.386
14 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 2’09.364 1.540
15 Shuhei AOYAMA Harc-Pro 2’09.767 1.943
16 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 2’10.046 2.222
17 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 2’10.244 2.420
18 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 2’10.277 2.453
19 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 2’10.394 2.570
20 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 2’10.477 2.653
21 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 2’11.521 3.697
22 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 2’13.555 5.731
23 Bastien CHESAUX Racing Team Germany 2’14.617 6.793
24 Kazuki WATANABE Bardral Racing with SJ-R 2’15.711 7.887

Out of limit time
77 Aitor RODRIGUEZ SPA Milar – Juegos Lucky Aprilia

The second round of the 2009 season got underway at the Motegi circuit today, the second visit to the Japan for the series in less than seven months, with the traditional autumn date having been brought forward to spring for this year. It proved to be a chilly change for the 250cc riders, with the track dropping to 19ºC by the time they took to it late this afternoon, with ambient temperatures of just 12ºC. It meant the riders had to be cautious and as such the pace was a long way off the circuit record, with Bautista and Simoncelli continuing their battle at the top of the time sheets, where they were joined by Hiro Aoyama at the home of Honda.

It was a good start for Mapfre rider Álvaro Bautista, who spent the session at the top end of the time sheets, leading them on several occasions and setting a strong pace whilst taking care not to risk a crash on the cold track. His best lap of 1’53.836 was the third fastest overall, eight tenths off top spot.

3rd Álvaro Bautista 1.53.836 (18 laps): “At the start I didn’t feel too good on the bike and I couldn’t brake hard in the slow corners. We improved in this area but on the cold track it was difficult to get a rhythm together. It was really cold today and we’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow but we have to stay focused and put in 100% effort regardless of the conditions, there are no excuses. The lap times aren’t as fast as last year so there is plenty of room for improvement. It’s the second race of the year and the goal is to pick up as many points as possible. With just one session on a Friday you have to work well, and quickly, and not take your eye off the ball otherwise you soon run out of time.”

Pos | Rider | Team | Lap time | Gap

1 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’53.093
2 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’53.695 0.602
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’53.836 0.743
4 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 1’53.940 0.847
5 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’54.497 1.404
6 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’54.584 1.491
7 Gabor TALMACSI Balatonring Team 1’54.594 1.501
8 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’54.595 1.502
9 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’54.757 1.664
10 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’55.103 2.010
11 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’55.158 2.065
12 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’55.208 2.115
13 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’55.453 2.360
14 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’55.538 2.445
15 Hector FAUBEL Valencia CF – Honda SAG 1’55.588 2.495
16 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’55.724 2.631
17 Shuhei AOYAMA Harc-Pro 1’55.929 2.836
18 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’56.017 2.924
19 Kazuki WATANABE Bardral Racing with SJ-R 1’57.274 4.181
20 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1’58.727 5.634

Out of limit time
7 Axel PONS SPA Pepe World Team Aprilia
56 Vladimir LEONOV RUS Viessmann Kiefer Racing Aprilia
8 Bastien CHESAUX SWI Racing Team Germany Honda
77 Aitor RODRIGUEZ SPA Milar – Juegos Lucky Aprilia
48 Shoya TOMIZAWA JPN CIP Moto – GP250 Honda