125cc: Corsi wins hard-fought Valencia race

Italy's Corsi, starting the race from third, took the lead from Spanish teammate Terol on lap two of 24 and held it until lap twelve, when Frenchman di Meglio completed his recovery from the seventh spot on the grid to take first.

From then on, Corsi and di Meglio exchanged the lead on every lap except for lap 20, until the Ajo Derbi rider relinquished the lead for the final time on the penultimate lap when he briefly lost the rear and went wide, with Corsi going back at the front and Terol slotting into second.

Corsi managed to keep an advantage of a few metres in the last lap to win the race by one tenth of a second over Terol, with di Meglio a further tenth down.

Today's victory means that Corsi is the runner up in this year's championship, with last year's champion Gabor Talmacsi - who was six points ahead before this race - falling to third in the standings.

The Hungarian, who qualified on pole position, crashed out on lap seven from sixth position after breaking his Aspar Aprilia's gear level on the first lap while on the lead.

Polaris World Aprila's Bradley Smith ended the race in fourth place after holding third place for two laps from lap 19, when he took advantage of a scrap between Terol and Sandro Cortese. The latter ended up fifth with his Emmi Aprilia.

Andrea Iannone had a lonely race to sixth with his I.C. Aprilia after Stevie Bonsey crashed his Degraaf Aprilia on lap 16.

Red Bull KTM's Tomoyoshi Koyama classified seventh ahead of Bluesens Aprilia's Scott Redding, and the KTMs of Pablo Nieto (Onde) and Esteve Rabat (Repsol).

Stefan Bradl had a high-side and crashed his Kiefer Aprilia on the third lap, taking Sergio Gadea's Aspar Aprilia with him. Danny Webb also crashed his Degraaf Aprilia on lap seven, while Raffaele de Rosa did the same with his Onde KTM two laps later.

Belson Derbi's Pol Espargaro, who was briefly knocked out in a crash in yesterday's qualifying, was deemed fit to race today, but during this morning's warm-up didn't feel in perfect conditions and abandoned the event.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Simone Corsi      Aprilia  40:45.715
 2.  Nicolas Terol     Aprilia  +   0.106
 3.  Mike Di Meglio    Derbi    +   0.223
 4.  Bradley Smith     Aprilia  +   0.776
 5.  Sandro Cortese    Aprilia  +   1.333
 6.  Andrea Iannone    Aprilia  +  21.578
 7.  Tomoyoshi Koyama  KTM      +  29.387
 8.  Scott Redding     Aprilia  +  29.419
 9.  Pablo Nieto       KTM      +  38.059
10.  Esteve Rabat      KTM      +  38.481
11.  Lorenzo Zanetti   KTM      +  38.941
12.  Efren Vazquez     Aprilia  +  48.466
13.  Lorenzo Savadori  Aprilia  +  48.802
14.  Alexis Masbou     Loncin   +  50.340
15.  Enrique Jerez     KTM      +  50.575
16.  Takaaki Nakagami  Aprilia  +  52.220
17.  R.Krummenacher    KTM      +  55.047
18.  Jonas Folger      KTM      +  55.139
19.  Jules Cluzel      Loncin   +  55.546
20.  Marco Ravaioli    Aprilia  +1:00.289
21.  Robert Muresan    Aprilia  +1:10.142
22.  Bastien Chesaux   Aprilia  +1:26.165
23.  Louis Rossi       Honda    +1:26.407
24.  Daniel Saez       Aprilia  +1:41.720
25.  C.Trabalon        Aprilia  + 1 Lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike       Laps
     Pere Tutusaus     Aprilia     23
     Julian Miralles   Aprilia     22
     Steve Bonsey      Aprilia     15
     Joan Olive        Derbi       14
     Adrian Martin     Aprilia     11
     Raffaele De Rosa  KTM          8
     Gabor Talmacsi    Aprilia      6
     Daniel Webb       Aprilia      6
     Robin Lasser      Aprilia      6
     D.Agerter         Derbi        3
     Sergio Gadea      Aprilia      2
     Stefan Bradl      Aprilia      2
     Ricard Cardus     Derbi        0
     Pol Espargaro     Derbi        0
     H.van den Berg    Aprilia      0

FASTEST LAP: Di Meglio, 1:40.901 on lap 4