Talmacsi on top

Gabor Talmacsi, the former FIM 125cc World Champion, was quickest during the opening 250cc practice session at Losail in Qatar.

Talmacsi, of the Balaton Racing Team, edged out Alvaro Bautista on the Mapfre Aspar Aprilia by 0.041 seconds.

Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia), Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) and Hector Barbera (Pepe World Team) also showed good speed and were within half a second of Talmacsi.

Defending champion Marco Simoncelli was three seconds off the pace and 16th quickest but was doing well to even ride.

Simoncelli had surgery on Tuesday to insert a pin to repair the scaphoid bone he broke in his right wrist when training on a motocross bike last week.