Terol crushes the 125cc field with dominant win in season opener
It all began on Sunday night. The 2011 125cc season began under the Qatari floodlights, with eighteen laps deciding the winner of the inaugural race of the year. A change for this campaign was the lining up of the riders in rows of three, as opposed to the four-man grid lines of previous years. The end result was a win for BANKIA Aspar’s Nico Terol, who broke away early and pulled far away from the trailing group of five riders.
BANKIA Aspar’s Nico Terol was feeling comfortable in practice, and was back on the top step of the Qatar podium for the second year. He pushed hard early on and pulled out an enormous gap over his rivals. He continued to increase the gap as the laps went on, and he managed the space between he and his fellow competitors to cruise to victory. In the early stages, Terol was riding at nearly two seconds a lap faster than the rest of the field. Teammates Héctor Faubel and Adrián MartÃn didn’t have quite as good a weekend, as the former missed out on the podium fight due to a problem with his bike. The returning Spaniard’s main difficulty came on lap thirteen, and he eventually came home in eleventh place to earn five points. MartÃn started from fifteenth on the grid, but a second lap mistake saw him crash on turn ten. The young rider from Chiva resumed the race, in order to gain experience on the world stage.
1st Nico Terol: “I am delighted, because I felt very comfortable and fluid on the bike. As a result, the quick lap times came relatively easy. The end of the race was a bit more difficult, because on the last four laps I could feel some bounce from the rear tyre. It was very weird, and being so close to crashing made those final laps the longest of my life. I slowed down a lot in order to avoid any more scares before crossing the line. I want to thank the team for a fabulous job, because the bike was really fast and the chassis was magnificent. We have to keep our feet on the ground in any case, because a lot of riders will be gunning for anyone who pulls ahead. We reached a fantastic level last season, and I am going to try and use that experience to my advantage this year. Riding without a warmup was strange, and at the start it seemed like just another practice session. We had a great weekend overall, but I repeat that we are going to have to work hard. There will be no getting complacent.”
11th Héctor Faubel: “It was a pity that we had engine problems, because I felt good in the race. The weekend wasn’t especially good, but in qualifying yesterday we managed to get the bike working well. That motivated me for the race. I took off strong and found myself in the chasing pack, in which I was riding comfortably. I saw that the bike wasn’t running so well, so I stuck behind Cortese instead of pushing. My intention was to make a move in the final sprint, opening up a gap, but the engine had problems when I decided to go. I lost power and had to really fight hard to take eleventh. It’s five points, but not the result that I was aiming for.”
28th Adrián MartÃn: “It was a bit of a strange weekend, but in the warmup yesterday we were able to get the bike to my liking. I took off strongly, because I knew that I could be part of the top ten. Shortly after starting I felt good in the group with Salom and Moncayo. I think that we didn’t get the bike quite right for the straights, because they were taking time of me there. I wanted to push harder, but I made a mistake and fell. I lost time, but decided to resume the race in order to gain experience. That was good for me, having barely tested in preseason.”
Source: Bankia Aspar Team
