Terol Takes Textbook Victory At Mugello

 In News

A variable weekend in terms of weather conditions concluded for the 125cc riders with a dry race. The Italian GP was a heated affair both in terms of climate and race action, with Nico Terol turning things up a notch with a frenetic race pace of 1’57 on the opening laps. Zarco experienced shade of Montmeló as he tried to stop the Spaniard getting away. Terol commanded the race before resting up his hand in anticipation of a last lap overtake. He slipstreamed Zarco on the home straight to take the win. He had been a second faster than the best practice laps at times. Zarco was relegated to second, but the two were well ahead of any other rival.

BANKIA Aspar’s Nico Terol was the fastest man in every dry practice session, and had also led the way in the morning warmup. Just like in the 2010 Czech Republic GP, the Spaniard was returning to race action following a serious injury and complicated surgery, and repeated that feat with another comeback win. Terol had shown his intentions from the start of the weekend, and refused to drop his pace on Sunday. A textbook strategy was set out by Terol, and he executed it to perfection. With this latest win, the world championship leader extends his advantage to 39 points.

Héctor Faubel also put up a tremendous fight, despite starting from eighth on the grid. He made an immediate move up the field to get into the battle for third place. A moment on the last lap denied him his chance of a rostrum finish, but the BANKIA Aspar rider was nonetheless satisfied with a positive weekend and an impressive race pace.

Adrián Martín unfortunately did not get to see the chequered flag, crashing out towards the end of the second lap. It was a disppointing end to a good weekend.

1st Nico Terol:
“I am very satisfied with this victory, after my injury at Assen. The goal was to push hard on the opening laps and try and break free from the pack, but Zarco stuck with me well. I was riding at lap record pace to try and shake him off. I started to feel some pain in my hand at around the halfway point, so I tried to rest a little. As the laps went by I noted that on the way into the home straight, there was a chance to slipstream and win, because my bike was very fast. So I decided to rest up, follow him from a short distance and believe in that move. This victory is a glorious moment after missing the race at Assen. I thought that maybe a win was too much to ask for here. I had to change a few aspects of my riding because of my finger, but Dr. Xavier Mir did a fantastic job of reconstructing it and the team put a winning machine at my disposal. I think that I rode the perfect race and judged everything well; I tried to escape and planned well enough to have a back-up when that didn’t work.”

5th Héctor Faubel:
“It was a hard race. I started from quite far back and had to make up places at the start. The times were scarily quick, as I was going faster than I had been all weekend. We were riding in the 1’48s for a good part of the race. I was comfortable riding alongside Viñales and Vázquez and was saving myself for a big push with five or six laps to go. I was up into third near the end and tried to break free, but they stuck with me and Maverick was able to overtake me. The only way for me to get onto the podium was to stick with him, but I was so close that on the second Arrabbiata I ran wide and clipped the grass. That was when Efrén snuck past as well. I tried to fight back but there was no time. Despite missing out on the rostrum, I am happy with my pace and know that I could have fought for the win if my grid position had been better.”

Adrián Martín (DNF):
“I didn’t have much grip on the opening lap and thought that the tyre must have still been cold. Nevertheless, I pushed hard in order to prevent the group ahead of me from getting away. I was convinced that I could have kept up the pace for the entire race, if I could just stay upright for the first few laps. I was just about to complete lap two when I fell on the last turn. It was a shame, bur I am happy to have had a positive weekend of practice. The race didn’t go how we would have liked, but we have to believe that we will be competitive again in Germany.”

Source: Aspar Media

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