Terol Heads Up Row 2 At Phillip Island
A few drops of rain just moments before the start of 125cc qualifying this afternoon at Phillip Island thankfully held off to make way for a dry session to decide the grid positions for tomorrow’s race. With Nico Terol and Sandro Cortese having dominated proceedings up to that point, Johann Zarco made his mark with a fast lap that cut through the strong winds and sealed pole position.
Terol will serve his first ‘match ball’ of the season from the second row of the grid in fourth place. The odds are against it but the BANKIA Aspar tomorrow gets his first mathematical opportunity to become 125cc World Champion. The Spaniard is also looking to reach another milestone – 1000 career points – but for now he remains focused on the job at hand. His team-mate Héctor Faubel is also targeting the podium or even victory from the second row after qualifying fifth whilst Adrián Martín was unable to build on a positive start and could only manage fourteenth – all three riders struggling to cope with the high winds today.
4th Nico Terol 1.39.702 (18 laps):
“The end of the session was a little chaotic and every time I tried to push I had two or three riders looking for a two. These things happen in this category but it is still a pain. For one reason or another I couldn’t put a single good lap together and fight for pole position but I am not too bothered because I know we had a good consistent pace out there despite the changeable conditions. We are ready for the race and we just have to get a good start from fourth place. The objective is to put together the best race I can and that’s it. There could easily be a lead group of four or five riders so we’ll have to stay on our guard to try and fight to the end for the win.”
5th Héctor Faubel 1.39.963 (20 laps):
“It was a tough session today because it was so windy out there and I struggled to set my best lap. We’re fifth and that’s a decent result considering that we had a few setbacks and the wind took us all by surprise. We more or less know how we can improve the performance of the bike and I’ll be speaking with the mechanics tonight to see if we can get the chassis a bit more comfortable to cope with the wind. I feel in good shape to fight for the podium or even the win tomorrow. It’s a difficult circuit to escape at and the slipstreams will be important.”
14th Adrián Martín 1.40.984 (20 laps):
“Yesterday was a brilliant day and today didn’t go quite as well but we are looking at the positives and we know we have the pace to be higher than fourteenth. We’ll look to get a good start in the race whatever the weather. The position isn’t what we were hoping for and we have to try and work on the bike to get a better feeling with the wind. I am also having some front grip problems because of the wind and we need to fix that.”
Source: Aspar Media
