As the laps progressed Toni Elias lost touch with De Puniet and Pedrosa.  A further five seconds back was a hectic battle for fourth being waged between Rolfo, Porto, Nieto, De Angelis and Poggiali.

Daniel Pedrosa and Randy De Puniet stepped the battle up another peg during the middle stages of the race.

With nine laps to run Poggiali and Rolfo both went down.

Daniel Pedrosa and Randy De Puniet were riding the wheels off their machines in the closing laps of this race.  Both riders sliding their 250 machines around the fast double right hander in a fashion more reminiscent of the big MotoGP machines.  Thrilling stuff.

The leading pair swapped places numerous times on the last lap with De Puniet holding the lead most of the time and held on to take the win.  An awesome race, just like the 125 race earlier, now for the MotoGP men and no doubt another thriller.