Nico Terol takes dominant maiden Moto2 victory at COTA

The first Moto2 race at the Circuit of the Americas exceeded all expectations, and was the only contest in the three categories that make up the World Championship to stray from the script.

Scott Redding pulled away from pole position on the grid, but was unable to break free of his rivals. Pol Espargaró suffered an ugly crash on lap 3, Redding faded inexplicably, and Nico Terol pushed through on lap 4 to take the lead. In the space of two laps he had established a clear advantage, with a 3-second cushion between him and his rivals. He won comfortably, with Tito Rabat and Mika Kallio joining him on the podium.

MAPFRE Aspar rider Nico Terol took yet another victory in America –a talismanic country for the Spaniard. A year and a half after his last victory (Aragon 2011, in the 125cc class) he topped the rostrum for the first time in Moto2. Terol’s win is also the MAPFRE Aspar Team’s first triumph in the Moto2 class. Indianapolis 2008 –also a debuting track at the time- was the scene of Terol’s first GP win, and it was fitting that he should repeat the feat in Moto2 at Austin.

He needed just three laps in order to get up to first, and the next four saw him riding in the 2’11s to break free. He set the fastest race lap on the sixth time around, then took his bike home for a memorable victory. He is now second in the World Championship, with 27 points.

Less fortunate was teammate Jordi Torres, who struggled in the race today with a defective rear tyre. Nevertheless, the Catalan fought to maintain positions and finally concluded the day 14th.

1st Nico Terol:
“At the start of the race I was a little nervous, because I did not want to make any mistakes and was hoping for a good result. At the end, when I saw what I had achieved, my confidence soared. In Valencia I managed a podium on a wet track, but I had not been at the front in the dry before –let alone won a race. My first GP victory was in America, my first win in Moto2 has also come here, so I’m very happy, I wish I had more races on American soil! This circuit is very technical, but I felt really good throughout the weekend. I knew that the key would be the first few laps, so I tried to stay as focused as possible. I managed to keep calm and wait for my moment to push hard. Redding had some problems I think, so when I picked up on them I set a goal to get past him and open up a gap. I knew that I had good pace, so I limited myself to trying to keep it up. When I saw what my advantage was and how it was increasing, I enjoyed the race a little more. Throughout the weekend we did a great job, using worn tyres for the most part and looking to find a strong pace. That was one of the keys to the win today.”

14th Jordi Torres:
“This morning in the warmup session we made a couple of changes that allowed us to climb through the field and up our pace. That has made us highly motivated when it came to race time, but it seems that we had a problem with the rear tyre -it would not let me lean the bike over well. I had to do wonders to turn the bike in. At first I thought it could be a temperature problem, and that it would steady up as the laps went by, but it actually got worse. Then there was shaking on the straights too. I stayed up as best I could and tried to keep my position, and in the end I finished fourteenth. I saw at the end that the tyre carcass had dented. Dunlop are investigating this in order to give a diagnosis. We had a difficult day, but the team are very happy with Nico’s win. I give my sincere congratulations to him; I’m so happy for him.”

Source: Aspar Media