Terol takes pole position after another dominant display

 In News

A third day of practice took place at Losail today before the main course finally arrives with the first races of the season tomorrow. A handful of youngsters staked their claim for a top grid position early in this evening’s 125cc qualifying session but the more it progressed the more the experienced riders in the field moved to the fore, Nico Terol and Sandro Cortese eventually becoming embroiled in a two-way battle for pole position.

BANKIA Aspar rider Terol was again in dominant form but after holding a significant advantage over his rivals in previous sessions he was almost outdone by Cortese at the crucial moment. The German moved to the top of the timesheets on the penultimate lap but Nico produced a last gasp response. Héctor Faubel had a smile back on his face again, finding a way through the engine problems that have plagued him for the last couple of days and putting a string of fast laps together at the end of today’s session to qualify fifth fastest. Adrián Martín struggled to improve his feeling and could only qualify fifteenth although he was able to shave a second off his time in the warm-up, which took place at the end of the evening, so is confident of making progress tomorrow.

1st Nico Terol 2.06.605 (13 laps): “In the end it was a close battle for pole and I had to push hard on the last lap but I am really happy to kick off the season in this way. More than the pole position I am pleased with my race pace. We are ready to go but we can’t afford to back off for a moment because as we saw today there are plenty of guys ready to pick your pocket! The first few laps will be tough tomorrow because we don’t have a warm-up so I will try and get a feel as quickly as possible and push as hard as I can.”

5th Héctor Faubel 2.08.062 (13 laps): “I am really happy because we have made a big improvement today and solved the problems we’ve been having over the past couple of days. The mechanics put a completely new engine in and we were able to set it up really quickly. During the warm-up we were able to put the finishing touches to it and make sure we are ready for the race tomorrow. We also changed the exhaust halfway through qualifying and forty minutes is not a long time to work in so we were up against it but things worked out well. Fifth place isn’t bad considering that we are still in a phase of adapting back to this class. It will be strange to start the race tomorrow without a warm-up but hopefully we can get a good start and get in the front group over the opening laps.”

15th Adrián Martín 2.09.859 (12 laps): “It hasn’t been an easy few days for me, I’m struggling to get on the pace and set the bike up. I haven’t qualified where I would have liked but we are not going to throw the towel in. It is the first race of the year and I am determined to turn the situation around and pick up as many points as possible. I felt more comfortable in the warm-up and the team are helping me a lot. After lapping a second faster in the warm-up I am confident we can do better tomorrow.”

Source: Bankia Aspar Team

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