Terol takes 6th, Torres 10th in tight race at Brno

Despite the flowing, fast nature of a long Brno circuit, the Moto2 Czech Republic GP was one of the tightest races of the season. Starting as the opening race of the day, the intermediate class put on a show at Brno in a dry race.

Takaaki Nakagami took the early lead, but usual suspects Kallio, Terol and Luthi joined the fun soon after. Groups of up to ten riders battled together to the end, with only five seconds separating them at the end. There were four different race leaders in Nakagami, Kallio, Terol and Luthi, but it was Kallio who took the win in a slow race affected by a drop in temperatures, ahead of Nakagami and Luthi.

Nico Terol had won at Brno in 2010 on a 125cc, and was motivated ahead of today’s race. He had set a strong pace on Friday and qualified ninth on Saturday in the closest ever Moto2 qualifying session to date. In the Sunday warmup he gained confidence and at the start of the race he was able to move up three places on the opening lap. He fought hard to reach the head of the field, and did so seven laps later to take the lead.

With three laps remaining, Terol ran wide and had to save a crash, losing him a pair of positions and ruling him out of the podium battle. Nevertheless, the Spaniard was pleased with his performance this weekend.

MAPFRE Aspar teammate Jordi Torres rounded off the top ten after a long fight against front end chatter with his Moto2 machine. The Spaniard managed to complete the contest, but will be looking for a better result next weekend at Silverstone in the British GP.

6th Nico Terol:
“I’m delighted with today’s race. After seeing how the weekend went, I knew that I had a good pace. I started strong and fought hard from the beginning. I almost got stuck between two riders, but I managed to shake off my rivals until I caught up with Kallio. Afterwards I took the lead and tried to escape, but things were very even today. Kallio got back past me, and I stuck with the podium fight. However, I was suffering a bit with the rear, which was sliding out on every corner and losing me time against Nakagami, Kallio and Luthi. I caught them back up and passed Nakagami with three laps remaining, but I ran wide and almost crashed. That was the key to the race, because if I had got past him then I would have been fighting for the win right to the end. Pol and Johan overtook me later and I was unable to reel them back in. Despite everything, I am happy because I was very aggressive and rode assuredly. For Silverstone I hope to remain at the same level and get onto the podium. I want to thank the team for their work in helping me improve over the course of the weekend.”

10th Jordi Torres:
“Yesterday we had a good setup for the bike, which allowed us to run a more consistent pace. This morning we wanted to make a change in order to gain speed on corner entry. We worked on the suspension in the warmup, but I think that the cold meant our data was deceptive. Unfortunately, with it being colder today we began to have chatter. I started well and on the opening laps was able to find my spot. However, as the laps went by the chatter increased and I had to adapt my riding to go more smoothly. That was when I dropped back from the leading pack. The positive point from this race is that we have been able to see our weaknesses. We have to keep in mind the variations in temperature when establishing our setup. I am happy, because I was able to complete the race despite a couple of scares. We know that we can be fast over a single lap, we were able to start well and fight, so from no won we are going to have to work on our consistency and pace.”

Source: Aspar Media