Hector Barbera has beaten Mattia Pasini for victory in an exciting battle over the final laps of the 250cc San Marino Grand Prix at Misano.
The two Aprilia riders, who ran alone at the front for the second half of the 26-lap race once Marco Simoncelli crashed his Gilera out of second place on lap 13, engaged in a hard but fair fight against each other, with the Pepe World Team rider beating the Team Toth one by just four hundredths of a second.
Title contender Alvaro Bautista (Aspar) made it an Aprilia 1-2-3, by just edging over championship leader Hiroshi Aoyama's Scot Honda by a mere six thousandths of a second.
Bautista's rookie team-mate Mike di Meglio classified fifth, followed by Jules Cluzel (Matteoni Aprilia), Alex Debon (Blusens Aprilia) and Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Honda).
Simoncelli's teammate Roberto Locatelli also ended his race with crash on lap 20 while running seventh.
CLASSIFIED:
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Hector Barbera Aprilia 43m23.353s
2. Mattia Pasini Aprilia + 0.040s
3. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 1.691s
4. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 1.697s
5. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia + 1.921s
6. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 9.202s
7. Alex Debon Aprilia + 10.483s
8. Raffaele De Rosa Honda + 11.360s
9. Hector Faubel Honda + 18.953s
10. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 24.480s
11. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 24.680s
12. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 51.521s
13. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 52.474s
14. Valentin Debise Honda +1m11.675s
15. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia +1m15.515s
16. Axel Pons Aprilia +1m15.666s
17. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia + 1 Lap
18. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 Lap
19. Aitor Rodriguez Aprilia + 1 Lap
NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:
Rider Bike On lap
R.Wilairot Honda 21
R.Locatelli Gilera 20
Toby Markham Aprilia 15
Marco Simoncelli Gilera 12
Bastien Chesaux Honda 3
Lukas Pesek Aprilia 2
Sergio Gadea Aprilia 0
FASTEST LAP: Aoyama, 1m39.039a on lap 23