125cc: Terol opens season with 125cc win

The Aspar team's new signing bided his time in the early laps, hanging back in the spectacular seven-bike battle for the lead, before forging to the front with four laps to go and then charging away and leaving his rivals to fight among themselves.

For most of the race the lead battle was between Efren Vazquez and polesitter Marc Marquez, with Pol Espargaro, Terol, Randy Krummenacher, Sandro Cortese and Esteve Rabat hot on their heels. The lead changed hands at least 15 times in the first 14 laps, primarily between Marquez and Vazquez, but with Espargaro and Rabat also managing a few inches in front.

Terol kept a low profile during this stunning handlebar-to-handlebar dice at first, then started showing his pace in the closing stages. He worked his way to the front by lap 14, and then broke his pursuers' challenge with a series of new fastest laps.

By the chequered flag Terol was able to wrap up his third career victory with a relatively comfortable 2.3-second cushion, leading an all-Spanish top four.

Vazquez just edged out Marquez for second, taking his maiden podium in the process, with Espargaro, Cortese, Krummenacher and Rabat right behind them.

Terol's team-mate Bradley Smith had jumped to fifth at the start, but was soon shuffled out of the lead pack, and in the end had to settle for eighth after a tough squabble with Tomoyoshi Koyama and Alexis Masbou.

Pos  Rider               Bike          Time/Gap
 1.  Nicolas Terol       Aprilia     38m25.644s
 2.  Efren Vazquez       Derbi         + 2.395s
 3.  Marc Marquez        Derbi         + 2.420s
 4.  Pol Espargaro       Derbi         + 2.840s
 5.  Sandro Cortese      Derbi         + 3.526s
 6.  Randy Krummenacher  Aprilia       + 3.569s
 7.  Esteve Rabat        Aprilia       + 3.692s
 8.  Bradley Smith       Aprilia      + 13.719s
 9.  Tomoyoshi Koyama    Aprilia      + 14.337s
10.  Alexis Masbou       Aprilia      + 15.917s
11.  Daniel Webb         Aprilia      + 28.744s
12.  Johann Zarco        Aprilia      + 35.667s
13.  Alberto Moncayo     Aprilia      + 36.831s
14.  Jasper Iwema        Aprilia      + 36.854s
15.  Jonas Folger        Aprilia      + 38.899s
16.  Marcel Schrotter    Honda        + 38.991s
17.  Louis Rossi         Aprilia      + 42.056s
18.  Sturla Fagerhaug    Aprilia      + 51.351s
19.  Jakub Kornfeil      Aprilia      + 56.496s
20.  Adrian Martin       Aprilia      + 56.750s
21.  Muhammad Zulfahmi   Aprilia    + 1m21.998s
22.  Luca Marconi        Aprilia    + 1m32.074s
23.  Quentin Jacquet     Aprilia    + 1m52.842s

Retirements:

     Marco Ravaioli      Lambretta  4 laps
     Luis Salom          Lambretta  2 laps
     Lorenzo Savadori    Aprilia    0 laps