The Permanent Bureau of the Grand Prix Commission decided today that there will be two days of extra testing for next year’s MotoGP Rookies, held in the middle of November at the Estoril circuit in Portugal.

With testing and practice cut short due to financial reasons next year’s Rookies face a bigger challenge than before to adapt to the new class, so a couple of factories and teams fought for some extra test days for their Rookies to give them the best preparation possible for their first season.
After the proposal initially looked to be denied with a lot of opposition coming from various important figures in the paddock, the final decision to grant two additional days of testing came as a surprise for many.

As Suzuki has been one of the factories trying to grant extra testing for their Rookie – Alvaro – he will be certain to be at this test in Estoril, along with Suzuki test rider Nobuatsu Aoki. It remains to be seen if all the Rookies will be showing up though as for example Herve Poncharal – team manager of Tech 3 Yamaha and Rookie Ben Spies – was very much against this proposal and this could mean that Spies will not be able to profit from the extra track time. Although in contrast to most Rookies he’s already out on the bike this weekend in Valencia to get his first experiences with the new bike.

Whilst the 250 riders were lucky to escape the worst wind of the day for free practice yesterday afternoon, today they endured reverse fortunes at Valencia. As in the 125cc class there was a local flavour to the top of the time sheets, as the home riders used their knowledge and experience of the track and conditions to pick up vital slipstreams that helped combat the effects of the wind.

The two Mapfre riders put on an impressive showing in this morning’s final free practice session but were unable to repeat their performance as the blustery conditions intensified in the afternoon. Álvaro Bautista experimented with a new set-up designed at giving him more rear traction on his Aprilia but the changes did not have the desired effect and he could only qualify ninth fastest.

9th Álvaro Bautista 1.37.303 (22 laps): “We tried a different setting for the afternoon because we had some traction problems this morning but it didn’t work so we went back to the original setting – unfortunately we didn’t have time to get many laps in after that. There was a lot of traffic on track at the end of the session too and I wasn’t able to improve my lap time. It means that once again we’re starting from further back than we’d like but hopefully we can have a good warm-up and gain the confidence to push hard from the start of the race. Everybody wants to win tomorrow so it will be a close race and important to stay in touch with the leaders from the start.”

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap
1 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’36.116
2 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’36.450 0.334
3 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’36.470 0.354
4 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’36.563 0.447
5 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’36.656 0.540
6 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’36.985 0.869
7 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’37.271 1.155
8 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 1’37.278 1.162
9 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’37.303 1.187
10 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’37.318 1.202
11 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’37.365 1.249
12 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’37.577 1.461
13 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’37.749 1.633
14 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’37.811 1.695
15 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’37.958 1.842
16 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 1’38.085 1.969
17 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’38.126 2.010
18 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’38.291 2.175
19 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’38.737 2.621
20 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 1’38.795 2.679
21 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’39.283 3.167
22 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’40.371 4.255
23 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 1’41.605 5.489
24 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1’42.418 6.302

Out of limit time
33 William DUNLOP IRL Bigman Racing Honda

Pos. Rider Team Lap time Gap

1 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1’36.356
2 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1’36.568 0.212
3 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1’36.583 0.227
4 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’36.635 0.279
5 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1’36.815 0.459
6 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1’36.957 0.601
7 Thomas LUTHI Emmi – Caffe Latte 1’36.959 0.603
8 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1’37.202 0.846
9 Mattia PASINI Paddock GP Racing Team 1’37.303 0.947
10 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1’37.366 1.010
11 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto – GP250 1’37.452 1.096
12 Hector FAUBEL Honda SAG 1’37.518 1.162
13 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1’37.593 1.237
14 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’37.618 1.262
15 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1’37.751 1.395
16 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly – CP 1’38.154 1.798
17 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1’38.459 2.103
18 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1’38.692 2.336
19 Balazs NEMETH Balatonring Team 1’38.856 2.500
20 Valentin DEBISE CIP Moto – GP250 1’38.948 2.592
21 Shuhei AOYAMA Racing Team Germany 1’39.141 2.785
22 Bastien CHESAUX Matteoni Racing 1’40.843 4.487
23 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1’41.115 4.759
24 William DUNLOP Bigman Racing 1’42.910 6.554

Out of limit time
10 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia Aprilia