Hector Barbera has beaten fellow Spaniard Alvaro Bautista to pole positions ahead of the 250cc Portuguese Grand Prix at Valencia.

The Pepe Aprilia rider's best time of 1m40.596s was set five minutes from the end of the 45-minute session, but no one managed to beat it even though the Aspar Aprilia rider came within six hundredths of it.

Reigning champion Marco Simoncelli had to be content with third with his Gilera, just three hundredths slower than Bautista, with championship leader Hiroshi Aoyama completing the front row with his Scot Honda.

Alex Debon will lead the second row provided his crash with ten minutes left in the session doesn't sideline him. The Blusens Aprilia rider left the scene of the crash on a stretcher.

Raffaele de Rosa on the second Scot Honda will start from the sixth grid slot, ahead of fellow Italian Mattia Pasini with the Globalgest Aprilia and Thai Honda's Ratthapark Wilairot.

Matteoni Aprilia's Jules Cluzel and Aspar Aprilia's Mike di Meglio round up the top ten.

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time               Laps 1.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  1m40.596s           19 2.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  1m40.654s + 0.058s  22 3.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   1m40.684s + 0.088s  21 4.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Honda    1m40.879s + 0.283s  21 5.  Alex Debon        Aprilia  1m41.008s + 0.412s  13 6.  Raffaele De Rosa  Honda    1m41.169s + 0.573s  21 7.  Mattia Pasini     Aprilia  1m41.182s + 0.586s  17 8.  R.Wilairot        Honda    1m41.190s + 0.594s  21 9.  Jules Cluzel      Aprilia  1m41.205s + 0.609s  1810.  Mike Di Meglio    Aprilia  1m41.353s + 0.757s  1911.  Hector Faubel     Honda    1m41.537s + 0.941s  2112.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia  1m41.728s + 1.132s  2213.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  1m41.764s + 1.168s  2214.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   1m41.794s + 1.198s  1715.  Shuhei Aoyama     Honda    1m42.194s + 1.598s  2116.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  1m42.312s + 1.716s  1917.  Shoya Tomizawa    Honda    1m42.348s + 1.752s  2018.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia  1m42.659s + 2.063s  1819.  Valentin Debise   Honda    1m43.427s + 2.831s  1820.  Axel Pons         Aprilia  1m43.445s + 2.849s  1821.  Balazs Nemeth     Aprilia  1m44.305s + 3.709s  1722.  Vladimir Leonov   Aprilia  1m44.583s + 3.987s  1823.  Bastien Chesaux   Aprilia  1m45.605s + 5.009s  2024.  C.Moretti         Aprilia  1m47.971s + 7.375s  1925.  Imre Toth         Aprilia  1m48.795s + 8.199s   9