Terol starts from front row as rivals suffer from cancelled qualifying
Rainy conditions from yesterday continued at the Grand Prix of Portugal continued today, with this morning’s third free practice taking place in dangerously wet conditions as several 125cc riders crashed out. The downpour intensified over lunch and at 1300h, when the minor category were due to return to the track for qualifying, Race Direction decided to postpone all track action until 1430h before eventually cancelling all remaining sessions.
Thanks to their excellent performances in free practice both Bancaja Aspar riders will start from the front row, with Bradley Smith on pole for the third time this season (the others were Brno and Misano) after setting the pace yesterday and this morning in the wet. Nico Terol was second fastest to his team-mate this morning despite a crash in turn twelve just four minutes from the end. However, his lap time was good enough to secure fourth place on the grid.
4th Nico Terol 2.03.823: “It worked out well for me that the session was cancelled because I am on the front row whilst my title rivals are quite far back. So far we have done a really good job but the points are dished out tomorrow. If it is a wet race I have a good setting but it will still be tricky because you have to stay really concentrated at this circuit. The surface is very slippery and it’s easy to make a mistake, which would be especially costly now that we only have two races left. If it’s dry it will also be tricky because we haven’t ridden in those conditions yet and nobody has any set-up info. Whatever happens I’ll be pushing hard from the start to try and get away.”
Source: Bancaja Aspar Team