Dominant Mugello Return For Terol
For the third Grand Prix in succession free practice was affected by rain today as a sunny morning in Tuscany gave way to showers in the afternoon. It led to an early finish for the majority of 125cc riders in their second session but a full hour in the dry this morning gave them chance to work on their machines and series leader Nico Terol the opportunity to make a strong statement on his return from a hand injury that ruled him out of the last race at Assen.
Just as he did last year at Brno, when he also returned on top form after a one-race absence, the BANKIA Aspar rider showed no signs of rustiness and although it promises to be a long weekend the Spaniard certainly showed his intent to challenge for victory on Sunday. He was the only rider to lap in the 1’58s today, with a gap of eight tenths over his nearest rival. His team-mates Héctor Faubel and Adrián MartÃn also made a decent start, lapping eighth and ninth fastest respectively.
1st Nico Terol 1.58.673 (19 laps):
“My finger was painful the first time I got on the bike this morning which was to be expected, especially when it is cold. I have had to change my riding a little bit to adapt but I am happy with the way I progressed and the feeling was much better than I expected. I am suffering under braking but when I get focused I can set a quick lap time. The telemetry is showing that I am braking a little early so as not to put too much pressure on my finger but other than that it is as if I am fully fit. My finger is set straight at the moment so every time I braked I was touching the lever, so we cut the lever a bit shorter. We’ll see how it goes but with the way we started this morning I am hoping to perform to my full potential this weekend.”
8th Héctor Faubel 2.00.767 (20 laps):
“I was happy this morning and looking forward to riding because I love this circuit. Everything started well but as we looked to improve the setting we struggled to get the right output from the engine. We changed the cylinder and a few other things for the afternoon but it rained so we didn’t get chance to test it properly. We needed a dry track to be able to properly compare the data but it seemed to work well in the wet so we’ll see tomorrow.”
9th Adrián MartÃn 2.00.874 (21 laps):
“I am happy because we have started the Grand Prix quite well and we were able to work on the race set-up. I did a few laps behind Héctor and got to know the track because I only had a few laps here last year after a crash. The new surface offers a lot of grip and when it was dry I really enjoyed myself. I hope we can prepare well for tomorrow because my target is a top ten position on the grid.”
Source: Aspar Media
