Hector Barbera delighted his home crowd at Valencia by winning the last 250cc race ever, as Hiroshi Aoyama took the title.
In a fairly exciting final race of the class, before the new Moto2 series takes over next year, Marco Simoncelli threw away all chances to snatch the title from Aoyama when he crashed from the lead late in the race. The Japanese driver, who only needed an 11th place in case the Italian won, fought hard for the leading position in the early laps before running his Scot Honda wide into the gravel on lap 10 and rejoining in 11th place.
Simoncelli's only hope for retaining his crown was to win, but seven laps from the end of the 27-lap race, with Barbera just a few tenths behind, he lost the front of his Gilera and retired, handing the lead of the race and second in the championship to Barbera. The Pepe Aprilia rider won the race over three seconds ahead of compatriot Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Aprilia).
Scot Honda's Raffaele de Rosa managed to take the final podium position with Emmi Aprilia's Tomas Luthi just 0.015sec behind. Ratthapack Wilairot (Thai Honda) took fifth, ahead of Karel Abraham (Cardion Aprilia) with a delighted Aoyama in seventh.
Pole position man Alex Debon did not take part in the race after injuring himself by crashing heavily at the end of yesterday's qualifying.
Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Hector Barbera Aprilia 44m10.601s
2. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 3.663s
3. Raffaele de Rosa Honda + 5.665s
4. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 5.680s
5. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda + 13.601s
6. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 13.697s
7. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 27.438s
8. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 35.097s
9. Roberto Locatelli Gilera + 35.866s
10. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 40.176s
11. Shuhei Aoyama Honda + 49.095s
12. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 53.132s
13. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia + 1m06.014s
14. Mike di Meglio Aprilia + 1m18.692s
15. Valentin Debise Honda + 1m18.876s
16. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia + 1 lap
17. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia + 1 lap
18. William Dunlop Honda + 1 lap
19. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 lap
Retirements:
Jules Cluzel Aprilia 23 laps
Marco Simoncelli Gilera 20 laps
Axel Pons Aprilia 19 laps
Mattia Pasini Aprilia 11 laps
Hector Faubel Honda 7 laps