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125cc: Espargaro wins, Marquez taken out

Pol Espargaro won a battle of the Spaniards to beat Nico Terol to 125cc honours in a dramatic race at Aragon this morning, as erstwhile championship leader and race favourite Marc Marquez crashed out

Marquez dominated free practice and qualifying and was expected to clear off into the distance come the race, but the Ajo Derbi rider made a poor start and got taken out by Swiss rider Randy Krummenacher at the first turn.

Krummenacher rode far too fast into the corner and wiped out Marquez, who collapsed onto the ground in despair as he realised his race was over. Krummenacher claimed he had "no space" as he arrived into the corner, but officials decided he was at fault for the incident and black-flagged him.

Britain's Bradley Smith made a brilliant start from row two to lead the race on the opening lap, but he fell back to third as the quicker Espargaro (Tuenti Derbi) and Smith's Spanish Aspar Aprilia team-mate Terol asserted their authority at the front.

Smith tried to go with them, but could not hang on and eventually finished nine seconds adrift of the lead duo.

Espargaro appeared to allow Terol into the lead at Turn 1 on lap four of 19, before Terol seemed to return the favour five tours later. Perhaps this was just tactical riding ahead of the crucial closing stages, because the battle for victory built to a thrilling crescendo in the final four laps.

Apparently struggling for grip, Espargaro fell six tenths adrift of Terol heading into lap 17, but he gathered it together for a final charge and closed onto the rear wheel of the leader's Aprilia heading onto the last lap.

A hard chop across Espargaro's bows at Turn 13 failed to put the determined Spaniard off and he got a great drive onto the back straight. As the packed stands of Spanish fans cheered the protagonists on, Terol covered the inside line heading towards the final turn, but Espargaro simply swept around the outside under braking to snatch the lead.

His bike squirmed and squealed coming onto the start/finish straight, but he held on to win the drag race to the line by just 0.050 seconds. Terol missed out on victory, but now takes over the championship lead from Marquez, with Espargaro also right in contention.

"The race was so difficult but fun," said the winner, who crashed heavily in practice. "I'm so happy because I needed a race like today. The feeling was so good with the bike."

Smith completed the podium; a comfortable six seconds clear of Espargaro's Tuenti team-mate Efren Vazquez, who pleased the partisan crowd by making it three Spanish riders in the top four. He won a battle with front row starter Sandro Cortese, who finished a further three seconds down in fifth, shadowed by Japanese rider Tomoyoshi Koyama.

Pos  Driver               Bike          Time/Gap
 1.  Pol Espargaro        Derbi       38m14.248s
 2.  Nicolas Terol        Aprilia       + 0.050s
 3.  Bradley Smith        Aprilia       + 9.460s
 4.  Efren Vazquez        Derbi        + 15.999s
 5.  Sandro Cortese       Derbi        + 18.396s
 6.  Tomoyoshi Koyama     Aprilia      + 18.967s
 7.  Esteve Rabat         Aprilia      + 25.971s
 8.  Jonas Folger         Aprilia      + 26.129s
 9.  Danny Webb           Aprilia      + 39.717s
10.  Luis Salom           Aprilia      + 42.719s
11.  Adrian Martin        Aprilia      + 48.635s
12.  Johann Zarco         Aprilia      + 56.065s
13.  Marcel Schrotter     Honda      + 1m01.926s
14.  Jakub Kornfeil       Aprilia    + 1m02.020s
15.  Sturla Fagerhaug     Aprilia    + 1m15.030s
16.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Aprilia    + 1m18.689s
17.  Alberto Moncayo      Aprilia    + 1m18.852s
18.  Marco Ravaioli       Lambretta  + 1m36.185s
19.  Joan Perello         Honda      + 1m54.278s
20.  Robin Barbosa        Aprilia    + 1m54.564s
21.  Alejandro Pardo      Aprilia        + 1 lap
22.  Josep Rodriguez      Aprilia        + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Simone Grotzkyj      Aprilia    15 laps
     Louis Rossi          Aprilia    13 laps
     Pedro Rodriguez      Aprilia    11 laps
     Peter Sebestyen      Aprilia    10 laps
     Jasper Iwema         Aprilia    8 laps
     Kevin Hanus          Honda      6 laps
     Randy Krummenacher   Aprilia    6 laps
     Marc Marquez         Derbi      0 laps

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