The Gran Premio de la Comunidad Valenciana got underway this afternoon, with home favourites in the ascendancy as the 250cc free practice took place. Hector Barberá and Alex Debón, both from Valencia, were amongst the pacesetters – as was Mapfre rider Álvaro Bautista – with Barberá clocking the fastest time of the session as Spanish riders eclipsed the title battle taking place here this weekend between Hiro Aoyama and Marco Simoncelli.

For Bautista this race represents his last opportunity to win a race in the intermediate class before he makes the step up to MotoGP and today he took advantage of his vast testing experience at this circuit to clock 28 consistent laps, with a best time of 1’36.866 that left him third on the time sheets.

3rd Álvaro Bautista 1.36.866 (28 laps): “The conditions were a little strange today. The track surface was dirty and quite cool, so we had to ride carefully. The majority of corners here are to the left so when you flick right you can really notice the lack of grip. Anyway, as the weekend progresses I’m sure the track and the weather will both improve. I felt pretty comfortable with the front end of my Aprilia and we were able to try a few things with the rear aimed at getting more life out of the tyre. We still haven’t found the perfect combination so we’ll keep trying tomorrow. In general I’m happy with the job we’ve done and I felt comfortable out there so it’s a good start.”

A good start to the weekend for Alvaro, finishing the first practice at Valencia in 3rd position while never being outside the Top 5 during the session.

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap
1 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’36.185
2 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’36.502 0.317
3 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’36.866 0.681
4 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’36.924 0.739
5 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’37.099 0.914
6 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’37.168 0.983
7 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’37.213 1.028
8 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’37.273 1.088
9 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’37.426 1.241
10 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’37.806 1.621
11 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’37.848 1.663
12 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 1’38.012 1.827
13 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’38.135 1.950
14 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’38.282 2.097
15 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 1’38.286 2.101
16 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’38.579 2.394
17 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’38.655 2.470
18 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 1’38.682 2.497
19 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’38.682 2.497
20 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’38.821 2.636
21 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’40.108 3.923
22 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’41.110 4.925
23 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 1’42.290 6.105

Not classified
10 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia Lap

Out of limit time
33 William DUNLOP IRL Bigman Racing Honda