As the lights went out on the Grand Prix of Portugal it was Hiroshi Aoyama on board the Honda that led the way however his lead was short lived and he was soon replaced at the front by Alvaro Bautista. Aoyama’s championship lead looked set to be reduced as he struglled to match the fields pace and fell down the order to eighth position. By lap five Bautista was in fourth place when distaster struck, Bautista was violently thrown from his Aprilia, subsequently turning the 2009 championship on its head.
Mistakes from Raffaele De Rosa and Alex Debon who were in fourth and fifth positions allowed Aoyama to regain two positions however he was unable to match the pace of Simoncelli, Di Melgio and Barbera.
By the mid way point of the race Simoncelli was able to break away from the Aprilia’s of Di Meglio and Barbera eventually taking his fifth win of the season by over five seconds on board his Gilera. Who would stand on the remaining steps of the podium was not so clear cut, leading into the last lap was Barbera however Di Meglio stuck with his fellow Aprilia rider and made the final move on the straight slipping past Barbera on the finishing line, promting a photo finish. Officals awarded Barbera second position by just 0.001 seconds over Di Meglio however upon further viewing officals changed their minds and awarded Di Meglio the second spot on the podium due to a faster race lap but with exactly the same race time as Barbera.
Championship leader Aoyama crossed the line 6.700 seconds behind the Di Meglio and Barbera to take fourth position. Rounding out the top ten where Jules Cluzel, Ratthapark Wilairot, Thomas Luthi, Mattia Pasini, Alex Debon and Karel Abraham.
Hiroshi Aoyama increased his championship lead to 218 points over Bautista who sits on 192, whilst Simoncelli was able to close the gap between himself and Bautista to a mere two points.
Aprilia now sit on 274 points in the manufactures championship 44 points ahead Honda in second place.
