125cc: Gadea wins 125cc thriller at Assen
Sergio Gadea clinched his first 125cc victory of the season after a thrilling last lap battle with Nicolas Terol and Julian Simon at Assen
Gadea was at the tail of the scrap between the trio of Spaniards going onto the final lap, but Terol's attempt to wrestle the lead from Simon half way around the lap delayed both and allowed Gadea to capitalise.
Terol rejoined the circuit just as Gadea swiped across the front of his bike into the lead, and had just enough of an advantage to survive the run to the line out of the final chicane. Simon also rejoined and was close behind in third.
Bradley Smith and Andrea Iannone had broken away with the lead trio in the early stages, but five bikes for the lead became three five laps in.
Initially, just Terol and Simon broke away at the front, while Gadea was holding up Iannone and Smith. But the latter pair were too busy fighting each other to make an attempt to pass Gadea, who was able to set off in pursuit of his countrymen.
Terol led most of the race, with Simon and Gadea taking it in turns to heap on the pressure while all three waited for the all-important last lap.
Smith and Iannone exchanged fourth place lap after lap but it was Smith that squeezed ahead out of the last corner to claim the spot by just 0.044s.
Things were no less frantic behind as Stefan Bradl led the battle for sixth, holding Pol Espargaro, Joan Olive, Simone Corsi, Jonas Folger and Marc Marquez at bay after pole-sitter Sandro Cortese crashed out of seventh place on the fourth lap.
That battle also came to a head at the final chicane as Olive ran off the road while challenging Espargaro. Bradl made it home first in sixth, with Folger seventh and Corsi eighth ahead of Espargaro, Marquez and Olive.
Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 39m07.577s
2. Nicolas Terol Aprilia + 0.078s
3. Julian Simon Aprilia + 0.901s
4. Bradley Smith Aprilia + 12.356s
5. Andrea Iannone Aprilia + 12.400s
6. Stefan Bradl Aprilia + 20.468s
7. Jonas Folger Aprilia + 20.755s
8. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 21.263s
9. Pol Espargaro Derbi + 21.558s
10. Marc Marquez KTM + 21.941s
11. Joan Olive Derbi + 23.605s
12. Efren Vazquez Derbi + 28.406s
13. Dominique Aegerter Derbi +1m00.312s
14. Marvin Fritz Honda +1m00.355s
15. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia +1m00.615s
16. Luis Salom Aprilia +1m00.629s
17. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia +1m00.997s
18. Michael van der Mark Honda +1m01.030s
19. Jasper Iwema Honda +1m08.795s
20. Lukas Sembera Aprilia +1m09.076s
21. Johann Zarco Aprilia +1m14.817s
22. Karel Pesek Derbi +1m30.729s
23. Luca Marconi Aprilia +1m46.244s
24. Pepijn Bijsterbosch Honda + 1 lap
25. Luca Vitali Aprilia + 1 lap
Retirements:
Esteve Rabat Aprilia 11 laps
Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 9 laps
Cameron Beaubier KTM 5 laps
Sandro Cortese Derbi 4 laps
Randy Krummenacher Aprilia 1 lap
Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1 lap
Scott Redding Aprilia 1 lap
Alexis Masbou Loncin 1 lap
Danny Webb Aprilia 0 laps
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