125cc: Faubel beats Gadea on the line

Le Mans race winner Gadea had picked his way through from 20th on the grid to join the swarm of 11 cars that fought for victory throughout the race. He exited the last corner at the head of the crowd, and seemed to have pulled far enough ahead to clinch the win.

But Faubel ducked out of the slipstream of Gadea and second placed Simone Corsi and accelerated past both in the final yards to steal the victory by 0.020 seconds.

Tomoyoshi Koyama had moved from fifth to the lead at the start, but was quickly usurped by Gabor Talmacsi. Mattia Pasini, Talmacsi and Faubel then made a brief break from the field, before being reeled in as between seven and 11 bikes ran as one throughout the middle stages - all swapping places repeatedly as the riders tried to get into position for the final showdown.

Pasini held the advantage for two laps in the closing stages, but was then shuffled further down the pack as first Faubel, then Gadea hit the front. It was Gadea who led as they crossed the line for the penultimate time, ahead of Corsi, Faubel and Talmacsi, and they stayed in that order until Faubel's perfectly-timed move as they sprinted to the flag covered by just 0.134 seconds.

Koyama claimed fifth, ahead of Pasini - who finally completed a race without problems - Sandro Cortese and Bradley Smith.

Lukas Pesek had been part of the lead battle until pushing too hard on the last lap and suffering a high-side that also pushed Raffaele de Rosa off the track. Faubel therefore moves into the points lead ahead of Talmacsi and Pesek.

Front row starters Mike di Meglio and Dino Lombardi both fell down the order early on, with Lombardi crashing on the first lap and di Meglio retiring after just a handful of laps.

Pos  Rider             Bike      Time
 1.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia   40:50.424
 2.  Sergio Gadea      Aprilia   +   0.020
 3.  Simone Corsi      Aprilia   +   0.066
 4.  Gabor Talmacsi    Aprilia   +   0.134
 5.  Tomoyoshi Koyama  KTM       +   1.662
 6.  Mattia Pasini     Aprilia   +   1.691
 7.  Sandro Cortese    Aprilia   +   1.813
 8.  Bradley Smith     Honda     +   2.959
 9.  Pol Espargaro     Aprilia   +  17.495
10.  Lorenzo Zanetti   Aprilia   +  18.277
11.  Michael Ranseder  Derbi     +  23.855
12.  Nicolas Terol     Derbi     +  32.919
13.  R.Krummenacher    KTM       +  36.260
14.  Raffaele De Rosa  Aprilia   +  38.199
15.  D.Agerter         Aprilia   +1:05.054
16.  Joey Litjens      Honda     +1:05.106
17.  Simone Sancioni   Aprilia   +1:05.395
18.  Federico Sandi    Aprilia   +1:05.648
19.  Robert Muresan    Derbi     +1:05.700
20.  Steve Bonsey      KTM       +1:25.417
21.  Daniel Webb       Honda     +1:25.595
22.  S.G.Giorgi        Aprilia   +1:45.299
23.  H.van den Berg    Aprilia   +1:46.907
24.  R.Tamburini       Aprilia   +   1 lap

Not classified/retirements:

     Lukas Pesek       Derbi     19
     Stefano Bianco    Aprilia   17
     Andrea Iannone    Aprilia   16
     Pablo Nieto       Aprilia   10
     Alexis Masbou     Honda     7
     R.Lacalendola     Aprilia   7
     Mike Di Meglio    Honda     3
     Joan Olive        Aprilia   3
     Dino Lombardi     Honda     0
     Tobias Siegert    Aprilia   0