A day of mixed weather at Phillip Island dealt its worst hand to the 250cc class, with free practice starting on a damp track this morning and a dry afternoon qualifying interrupted by a brief shower. Whilst Rafaele De Rosa produced the surprise of the session with his debut pole in the final few minutes, fellow Rookie of the Year contender Mike Di Meglio took a cautious approach as he focused on his race set-up in anticipation of dry conditions tomorrow. The Mapfre rider did a great job on solving the front end issues he suffered yesterday and produced two potential pole laps at the end – the first one spoiled by traffic and the second by a disappointing final section that left him sixth on the grid.
 
Things went even worse for his team-mate Álvaro Bautista, who has struggled all weekend to find a set-up for his Aprilia. The Spaniard experimented with a variety of front and rear solutions and tyre compounds today as he searched for more stability but he was unable to get completely comfortable and could manage no higher than tenth. Álvaro will continue to work hard in tomorrow morning’s warm-up session as he plots a comeback from the third row of the grid.

6th Mike Di Meglio 1.34.030 (17 laps):
“It wasn’t an easy day for us in terms of trying things with the set-up because the track conditions were strange and constantly changing. One minute we were out, the next it began to rain and we came in. I think it drove us all a little crazy! Luckily we were able to stay focused and not allow it to upset our work too much and in the end I’m satisfied with the result. We’ve had some front-end issues but we gradually sorted them out and even though it is still not 100% my feeling is better. The bike is vibrating in the fast corners and I keep losing the front so we still have something to work on in the warm-up. Other than that my Aprilia is working perfectly and my pace is good enough to look forward to a positive race.”

10th Álvaro Bautista 1.34.588 (20 laps):
“This obviously isn’t the result I was hoping for. We had some problems with the rear of the bike yesterday and this morning it was the same story. In the afternoon it looked like we’d improved it a little but I’m still not comfortable. We tried a hard front tyre but it didn’t work as we’d hoped. It makes the bike very stable in the direction changes but we need to adapt the chassis to it and make the whole thing run sweeter. We can’t throw the towel in yet – we have to keep working and do everything we can to improve and make sure we’re in a position to try and fight back in the race tomorrow.”