Terol Takes Sepang Pole, Faubel 2nd, Martin 9th
The 125cc riders today made their final preparations for tomorrow’s penultimate round of the season, which gets underway at the later time of 1pm, in searing temperatures today. As a consequence of the heat the riders struggled to improve their lap times in qualifying this afternoon following free practice this morning but it was a good session nevertheless for BANKIA Aspar, with Nico Terol and Héctor Faubel setting the pace and Terol’s only title rival Johann Zarco suffering several difficulties.
Terol and Faubel battled for pole until the final lap of the session, with the former edging out his team-mate by just 0.015 seconds, meaning they will start alongside each other on the front row of the grid tomorrow. A seventh pole of the season for Terol, with his closest rival in fifteenth, augurs well for his second attempt at clinching the title, whilst Héctor is targeting a second victory of the season ahead of his home round in Valencia. Adrián Martín rounded off a good day for the team by qualifying on the third row in ninth.
1st Nico Terol 2.13.579 (12 laps):
“I am very happy with the two sessions today because I felt comfortable and it wasn’t difficult to put a strong pace together. There was a bit of oil in the second turn so I took it easy for the first few laps because I didn’t want to crash under any circumstances. The bike broke down halfway through the afternoon session but as always the team fixed it immediately. I knew I had the pace to fight for pole and pushed hard over the final two laps to achieve it, which I am delighted about. Along with the fact that Zarco is quite a long way back it makes me relaxed about tomorrow although the goal is to stay focused and push for the win and the title. Héctor also has a strong pace so it would be wonderful if we could be fighting with each other for the win tomorrow.”
2nd Héctor Faubel 2.13.594 (14 laps):
“It was a shame not to finish on pole but I couldn’t make use of a decent slipstream over the last couple of laps whereas Nico did and managed to beat me by 0.015 seconds. Anyway, I am happy because I was fast and gave it my best shot. With our pace today I am sure we will be able to fight for the win tomorrow and I hope to be fighting with Nico for it until the last lap. We just have to make sure we don’t get in each other’s way and that’s it. I am sure it will be fun to watch. Nico, Cortese and I seem to have the edge on the rest so we’ll see what happens.”
9th Adrián Martín 2.15.304 (14 laps):
“I tried to set a good rhythm this morning but the new engine didn’t work as well as we hoped and needed running in. We compared my data with Héctor and Nico and I was doing everything the same as them. In the afternoon with some more miles on the engine I was able to get behind Héctor for a lot of laps and make use of his slipstream down the straights. I finished up ninth which is a good position and makes things a little easier for the race tomorrow. A good start could get me into the lead group tomorrow and I don’t have much to lose so I will be going for it.”
Source: Aspar Media
