Marco Simoncelli took a strong pole position at a wet but drying Sachsenring, ahead of tomorrow's 250cc Grand Prix.

The Metis Gilera rider dominated the 45-minute session and looked set to take pole by well over one second over the rest of the field thanks to a 1m32.962s lap, but a late charge by Hector Barbera (Pepe Aprilia) in the final seconds saw the Spaniard shoot up to second, just 0.143sec behind the Italian.

Aspar Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista ended the session third quickest, over 1.2 seconds behind pole, with Hiroshi Aoyama completing the front row with his Scot Honda.

Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Aprilia) was fifth, followed by Mattia Pasini who crashed his Team Toth Aprilia twice in the session. Alex Debon (Blusens Aprilia) and Hector Faubel round up the second row.

Balatonring Team Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro and Aspar Aprilia's Mike di Meglio complete the top 10.

The latter, along with Faubel and Raffaele de Rosa, were other notable crashers of this session.

TIMES:
Pos  Rider                Bike     Time       Gap

 1.  Marco Simoncelli     Gilera   1m32.962s

 2.  Hector Barbera       Aprilia  1m33.105s  + 0.143s

 3.  Alvaro Bautista      Aprilia  1m34.246s  + 1.284s

 4.  Hiroshi Aoyama       Honda    1m34.285s  + 1.323s

 5.  Karel Abraham        Aprilia  1m34.312s  + 1.350s

 6.  Mattia Pasini        Aprilia  1m34.333s  + 1.371s

 7.  Alex Debon           Aprilia  1m34.632s  + 1.670s

 8.  Hector Faubel        Honda    1m34.660s  + 1.698s

 9.  Aleix Espargaro      Aprilia  1m34.718s  + 1.756s

10.  Mike di Meglio       Aprilia  1m34.804s  + 1.842s

11.  Thomas Luthi         Aprilia  1m35.019s  + 2.057s

12.  Alex Baldolini       Aprilia  1m35.355s  + 2.393s

13.  Lukas Pesek          Aprilia  1m35.427s  + 2.465s

14.  Roberto Locatelli    Gilera   1m35.637s  + 2.675s

15.  Jules Cluzel         Aprilia  1m35.889s  + 2.927s

16.  Ratthapark Wilairot  Honda    1m36.078s  + 3.116s

17.  Raffaele de Rosa     Honda    1m36.097s  + 3.135s

18.  Shoya Tomizawa       Honda    1m36.387s  + 3.425s

19.  Imre Toth            Aprilia  1m36.767s  + 3.805s

20.  Vladimir Leonov      Aprilia  1m36.880s  + 3.918s

21.  Valentin Debise      Honda    1m37.633s  + 4.671s

22.  Toby Markham         Aprilia  1m37.939s  + 4.977s

23.  Bastien Chesaux      Honda    1m39.234s  + 6.272s

24.  Axel Pons            Aprilia  1m40.422s  + 7.460s

25.  Joakim Stensmo       Honda    1m42.138s  + 9.176s

26.  Robin Halen          Aprilia  1m41.581s  + 8.619s

27.  Marcel Becker        Yamaha   1m46.868s  + 13.906s