Elias and Terol gaining data and experience at first race of the season
The winter break was a distant memory when the Moto2 riders took to the grid in Qatar, as the fiercely competitive class returned for another thrilling race. Thomas Luthi had dominated practice, but the Sunday contest was a different matter as a close lead group formed early on. Márquez, Iannone, Espargaró and Luthi were all in contention for the win, but it was Márquez who managed to take the victory after first passing Luthi –who ran wide on the straight- and then holding off Iannone on the line. It was an exciting start to 2012 that would have had every spectator on the edge of their seat.
The MAPFRE Aspar riders had two very different starts in Losail, but both showed consistent fight as they tried to make the best of a difficult Qatar GP. Toni Elías had qualified 17th on the grid and had moved up into the top ten before the first lap was over, although he gradually lost positions due to a grip problem that had plagued him for the entire weekend. Despite everything, he managed to take the chequered flag in thirteenth place and take his first three points of the season. Nico Terol also had a hard time on track, debuting in the Moto2 class. A run-off early on left him refocusing his strategy, and he brought his bike home in 23rd to continue his adaptation to the intermediate category.
13th Toni Elías: “I made a very good start and put myself into the top ten on the opening lap. I had faith that a good start would set us up for a very good race –to tell the truth I was expecting more from this race. The opening laps went fairly well, but then I suffered just like I did in practice. I want to be positive and look at the three points from Losail as something that will be useful for us in the future. We gave our all, worked really hard and know that we did our best here. It was a really hard race in which we had plenty of battles, but the good thing is that we leave Qatar with plenty of data to analyse. I hope that we take a significant step forward at Jerez.”
23rd Nico Terol: “My debut race in Moto2 was rather difficult and today I could see that this class is a world apart from 125cc. The weekend wasn’t easy, but I am satisfied because we progressed well. The big setback was the qualifying session, in which I didn’t have the best of feelings and ended up far back on the grid. That made things more complicated and I needed to make a comeback through the field, but when I tried this I ran long on the straight. From then on I took things more calmly and tried to pick up experience. I know that there is still a long way to go, but we are here to work and I am convinced that –with this team behind me- sooner or later we will be cutting the gap between ourselves and the front group. This opening race will help me to learn from my mistakes. We have to improve our performance in qualifying, the race start and the opening laps. I am satisfied, though, because we gave our all.”
Source: Aspar Team
