At 13:15 local time the lunchtime 250cc race took centre stage in Malaysia. The penultimate round of the series saw a surprise leader in the early stages, as Jules Cluzel took charge from the start. The favourites for victory were soon back in the picture, however, as the race pace upped rapidly under the sweltering heat. Hiroshi Aoyama clocked a new circuit record of 2’07.597, before tyres started to wear away and falls became a regular occurrence. That favoured a break for the top three, with Aoyama eventually taking victory. He holds the advantage in the overall standings, as the class becomes the only one of the three not to have a victor already decided.
 
Mapfre riders Mike di Meglio and Álvaro Bautista had a productive weekend that turned sour come Sunday. Once again the two were the victims of a certain amount of misfortune, and both hit the asphalt in race-ending crashes that ruined the hard work put in over the previous two days.
Alvaro made a bad start and making a comeback through the field to try and take the lead. One lap after Di Meglio’s fall, it was Bautista who lost the front end on turn nine, ending his race and any chance of a title push.

Álvaro Bautista (DNF):
“Things were going more or less fine, and I had hooked up to the lead group after making up some places. I felt comfortable riding and wasn’t going at full gas, saving a little for the final push. This track is very demanding, and I wanted to be able to seize my opportunity and take the lead when it came around. My goal was to stay in the pack until then. I hit the bakes before going into turn nine, and I crossed the bars and was unable to avoid the crash. It is a pity, because in three races our chance of the title has gone up in smoke, as we gave our all but had some horrible luck. In Valencia I will try to enjoy the last race at home, and look to give the fans a good result to finish off the year.”

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 42m55.689s
2. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 6.397s
3. Marco Simoncelli Gilera + 6.397s
4. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 14.871s
5. Hector Faubel Honda + 19.177s
6. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda + 19.567s
7. Alex Debon Aprilia + 20.255s
8. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 34.561s
9. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 50.937s
10. Shuhei Aoyama Honda + 1m04.186s
11. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia + 1m08.917s
12. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 1m10.616s
13. Valentin Debise Honda + 1m17.945s
14. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia + 1m29.669s
15. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia + 1m43.536s
16. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 1 lap

Lap times were incredibly close for the 250cc class again today, with the top eleven separated by just a second in this afternoon’s single qualifying practice for Malaysian Grand Prix. It made for an exciting session in which pole position wasn’t decided until the very last moment, with slipstreams in the final section vital. In the end it was series leader Hiroshi Aoyama who snatched top spot ahead of French rookies Mike Di Meglio and Jules Cluzel, and Spanish pair Hector Barberá and Álvaro Bautista in the intense heat of Sepang.
Alvaro set a solid pace and also topped the time sheets for a spell before settling for fifth place on the grid.    

5th Alvaro Bautista 2.07.371 (17 laps):
“It’s a shame we missed out on the front row but the lap times are there and our rhythm is good. Luckily Mike was able to make the most of my slipstream so at least the team benefited. I crashed this morning when we were experimenting with things so in the afternoon we stuck to what we thought worked best and just focused on putting a pace together without sending ourselves crazy. There isn’t a lot of difference between the guys at the front and it’s going to be a close and hard race tomorrow because of the heat. We have to make sure we stay in touch from the start because any kind of fight-back is dangerous in these conditions. The set-up isn’t perfect but we are ready to race.”

After a strong showing in the first half of the session, holding on to pole position for quite some time, Alvaro wasn’t able to improve his laptime in the closing minutes of the qualifying and slipped back to 5th position in the end.

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap
1 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’06.767
2 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 2’07.099 0.332
3 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 2’07.232 0.465
4 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 2’07.301 0.534
5 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 2’07.371 0.604
6 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 2’07.662 0.895
7 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 2’07.828 1.061
8 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 2’07.916 1.149
9 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 2’07.949 1.182
10 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’07.953 1.186
11 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 2’07.998 1.231
12 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 2’08.159 1.392
13 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 2’08.836 2.069
14 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 2’08.841 2.074
15 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2’08.908 2.141
16 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 2’09.148 2.381
17 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 2’09.336 2.569
18 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 2’09.392 2.625
19 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 2’09.654 2.887
20 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 2’11.611 4.844
21 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 2’11.941 5.174
22 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 2’12.171 5.404
23 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 2’12.813 6.046
24 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 2’14.831 8.064

Second free practice in Malaysia took place under very hot conditions once again. Alvaro had a relatively harmless looking crash after losing the front tyre, sliding off the track just halfway through the season. However, he did not manage to record a better laptime after coming out on track again and finished the session only in 11th place.

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap
1 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’07.160
2 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 2’07.485 0.325
3 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 2’07.727 0.567
4 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 2’07.870 0.710
5 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’08.071 0.911
6 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 2’08.086 0.926
7 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 2’08.130 0.970
8 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 2’08.209 1.049
9 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 2’08.250 1.090
10 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 2’08.296 1.136
11 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 2’08.547 1.387
12 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 2’08.555 1.395
13 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 2’08.590 1.430
14 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 2’08.602 1.442
15 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2’08.795 1.635
16 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 2’08.970 1.810
17 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 2’09.334 2.174
18 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 2’09.501 2.341
19 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 2’10.304 3.144
20 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 2’11.149 3.989
21 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 2’11.336 4.176
22 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 2’11.518 4.358
23 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 2’14.659 7.499

Out of limit time
56 Vladimir LEONOV RUS Viessmann Kiefer Racing Aprilia

The 250cc riders took to the Sepang Circuit in searing heat late this afternoon as the Malaysian Grand Prix got underway in typically tricky conditions. An unusual session saw a variety of different riders take their turn at the top of the time sheets before series leader Hiroshi Aoyama took control. However, with the top eight riders separated by only a second it is unclear whether the Honda rider will be able to withstand the Aprilia onslaught until the end of Sunday’s race.

Álvaro Bautista has started out at Sepang with the same attitude and hunger he showed at Phillip Island a week ago, continually improving his lap times until a rear grip problem emerged in the second half of the session. However, after setting the fifth fastest time today and in the knowledge that only a win will do on Sunday in order to keep his title hopes alive the Spaniard is refusing to throw the towel in just yet.

5th Álvaro Bautista 2.08.159 (20 laps): “I felt comfortable with the bike as soon as I went out on the track today and my feeling was good. The only thing was that the bike was running wide in a few corners and when I tried to pull it back in I was losing the rear. We worked hard on sorting it out and by the end I think we found the way forward. I’m more or less happy with the result because it’s only the first day and we’re only a couple of tenths off the fastest lap. The pace is on lap record and we’re there with the frontrunners, so hopefully the weather holds out tomorrow and allows us to continue improving. As far as I’m concerned I think the more riders are fighting for the win on Sunday the better for me, because that would help us. Having said that it is difficult to make any predictions when the conditions are like this and racing is very different to practice. Holding that pace for so many laps is not easy.”

Good strong showing by Alvaro in the first practice at Sepang, leading the field for the first half of the session.

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap

1 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’07.875
2 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 2’07.888 0.013
3 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 2’07.927 0.052
4 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 2’07.973 0.098
5 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 2’08.159 0.284
6 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 2’08.285 0.410
7 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 2’08.763 0.888
8 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 2’08.852 0.977
9 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 2’09.120 1.245
10 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 2’09.137 1.262
11 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 2’09.159 1.284
12 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 2’09.209 1.334
13 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 2’09.635 1.760
14 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 2’09.804 1.929
15 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 2’09.816 1.941
16 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 2’09.858 1.983
17 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 2’10.001 2.126
18 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 2’10.072 2.197
19 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 2’12.612 4.737
20 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 2’12.919 5.044
21 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 2’13.159 5.284
22 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 2’13.265 5.390
23 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 2’13.414 5.539
24 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 2’14.116 6.241

Friday 23 October
12.40 – 13.40              125cc Free Practice 1
13.55 – 14.55              MotoGP Free Practice 1
15.10 – 16.10              250cc Practice 1

Saturday 24 October
09.00 – 09.40              125cc Free Practice 2
09.55 – 10.55              MotoGP Free Practice 2
11.10 – 12.10              250cc Free Practice 2

13.00 – 13.40              125cc Qualifying
13.55 – 14.55              MotoGP Qualifying
15.10 – 15.55              250cc Qualifying

Sunday 25 October
09.40 – 10.00              125cc Warm Up
10.10 – 10.30              250cc Warm Up
10.40 – 11.00              MotoGP Warm Up

12.00                           125cc RACE (19 laps)
13.15                           250cc RACE (20 laps)
15.00                           MotoGP RACE (21 laps)

Schedule is local time
Time Zone GMT + 8 hours

The MotoGP World Championship paddock leaves behind the fresh spring temperatures of Australia this week and heads for the heat of Malaysia, host to the fourth and final back-to-back race of the season. The 250cc World Championship title chase approaches an exciting conclusion, with 50 points still up for grabs and the series leader seemingly running out of steam in the crucial part of the season. His rivals are closing in and everything points to a final-race decider at Valencia in two weeks’ time.
 
Mapfre rider Álvaro Bautista heads into the Malaysian round hoping for a turnaround in his recent fortunes, having come away empty handed from the last race but one in Portugal following a crash and then suffering another crash when throwing caution to the wind with a stirring challenge for victory in Australia. Having at least been able to return to the track and score points in tenth place at Phillip Island, his hopes of winning the title are still alive although only just, with a 29-point gap to the top and just two races remaining. However, Álvaro will continue to throw everything he has at the cause from the opening practice session on Friday at Sepang, where he hopes to revitalise his season with a victory.

Words from Alvaro…

“Luck hasn’t been on our side over the past couple of races. I guess that in this sport, as in any other, you have to prepare yourself properly and believe you can win but you also need a touch of luck too. After Portugal I was sure that we couldn’t hold anything back in the races that remained, that it was time to take a few risks and that’s what we did in Australia. The gamble didn’t pay off but we can’t lose heart. Sepang is another circuit I love and I know that the Aprilia can perform much better than the Honda here, so we have to make the most of it. The championship is a very slim possibility but it is still a possibility and we have nothing to lose, so we’ll just give it our best shot every time we go out onto the track and try everything we can to win the last two races.”