Terol Dominates Friday Practice Sessions At Le Mans
The 125cc riders got the action underway at the Grand Prix de France today, where perfect weather made for closer and more diverse results than in the previous three rounds of the season so far. Even though BANKIA Aspar rider Nico Terol has been fastest in both free practice sessions he was challenged this afternoon by his team-mate Héctor Faubel and fellow Spaniard Efren Vázquez. The ideal conditions also lent themselves to fast lap times, with Terol just a thousandth of a second off the record.
Terol dominated the morning session although he was forced out of top spot for much of the afternoon by Vázquez. Two fast laps at the end of the session lifted him above his compatriot by half a second and the series leader looks certain to break the lap record with more track time tomorrow. Faubel is currently nine tenths off the fastest lap, having spent much of the session just a couple of tenths off the top. The Spaniard is determined to make up for his Estoril nightmare here and he is confident of making vast improvements to his lap times tomorrow by brushing up his pace in the first sector. The third BANKIA Aspar rider Adrián Martín made a good start to life at this track, lapping inside the top ten and finishing just 1.7 seconds shy of Terol’s fastest lap.
1st Nico Terol 1.43.788 (33 laps):
“To be back at the circuit where I scored my first pole is a source of great motivation but the track was slippery this morning so we have started off steadily and gradually built our pace. My pace was really good this afternoon and in the end my best lap was as good as my pole time from last year. That shows how high the level is and also means that we have started the Grand Prix strongly. There is a quite big gap to second place but not as big as it has been in past races and I’m sure it will be even smaller tomorrow. All I am trying to do is challenge myself and have the bike ready for Sunday.”
4th Héctor Faubel 1.44.711 (28 laps):
“We went the wrong way with the set-up this morning, a bit like in Portugal, but we went back to what we had at Jerez and Qatar and I felt comfortable immediately. I was losing a lot of time in the first sector so we need to look at the gearbox setting because I am dropping a lot of revs between shifts. Apart from that the bike is working really well and we know how to improve it so I am calm. We put some good laps together by the end and I am feeling satisfied with the work done and confident about what is to come.”
10th Adrián Martín 1.45.507 (33 laps):
“In Portugal we had a positive weekend and that has helped us improve a lot on a psychological level and in terms of the bike setting. In the space of just one round everything feels different, the bike is running really well and I feel comfortable so I hope we can continue. I have got a good set-up for tomorrow so we have to think about how we can get a little more out of it before qualifying. I think we have a good pace for the race because we have closed the gap to the top.”
Source: Aspar Media
