125cc: Faubel clinches victory in Qatar

The two riders, who started in second and first place respectively, were both pipped by fifth-spot Spaniard Sergio Gadea at the first corner, but soon overtook him and opened a big gap to the rest of the field.

Gadea retired from the race with five laps to go, after having dropped well down the field after suffering from what appeared to be engine gremlins.

Talmacsi closed the 1.5 seconds gap Faubel had over him at mid-race to take the lead on lap 12. The Spaniard looked happy enough with conceding the lead, and did not try to retake it for a couple of laps, visibly sitting up on the front straight.

At the beginning of lap 15, with three to go, Faubel again overtook his Hungarian teammate, but left a gap at the beginning of the last lap, which Talmacsi duly filled.

Midway through that last lap it looked like the race was over, but Faubel closed the gap again and slingshot past Talmacsi just a few metres before the finishing line.

Third place was a close affair between Lukas Pesek and Raffaele de Rosa, with the Czech beating the Italian, over 17 seconds behind the leaders.

Fifth and sixth places went to Simone Corsi and Tomoyoshi Koyama respectively.

Italian championship contender Mattia Pasini had a difficult race. At the end of the second lap, while in second place, he looked like he had developed some sort engine problem and dropped down to 13th. After a quick visit to the pits on lap seven, he went through the gravel trap with three laps to go and retired from the race.

Briton Bradley Smith started in ninth and, after dropping down to 17th at the first corner, he worked his way back up in the race to 12th position.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Make      Time
 1.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia   38:12.029   
 2.  Gabor Talmacsi    Aprilia   +   0.073
 3.  Lukas Pesek       Derbi     +  17.499
 4.  Raffaele De Rosa  Aprilia   +  17.754
 5.  Simone Corsi      Aprilia   +  25.642
 6.  Tomoyoshi Koyama  KTM       +  25.877
 7.  Pol Espargaro     Aprilia   +  28.437
 8.  Esteve Rabat      Honda     +  28.527
 9.  Pablo Nieto       Aprilia   +  28.708
10.  Alexis Masbou     Honda     +  33.669
11.  Joan Olive        Aprilia   +  40.665
12.  Bradley Smith     Honda     +  40.679
13.  Michael Ranseder  Derbi     +  40.915
14.  Mike Di Meglio    Honda     +  41.671
15.  Andrea Iannone    Aprilia   +  41.764
16.  Nicolas Terol     Derbi     +  48.643
17.  Sandro Cortese    Aprilia   +  48.656
18.  Lorenzo Zanetti   Aprilia   +  48.858
19.  R.Krummenacher    KTM       +1:03.160
20.  D.Agerter         Aprilia   +1:23.074
21.  Joey Litjens      Honda     +1:23.147
22.  Steve Bonsey      KTM       +1:31.521
23.  R.Tamburini       Aprilia   +1:59.152
24.  H.van den Berg    Aprilia   +2:00.040

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Make      On Lap
     Daniel Webb       Honda       16
     Mattia Pasini     Aprilia     15
     Stefano Bianco    Aprilia     14
     Sergio Gadea      Aprilia     12
     S.G.Giorgi        Aprilia      7 
     Federico Sandi    Aprilia      4 
     Robert Muresan    Derbi        3 

Fastest Lap: Gabor Talmacsi, 2:06.267 on lap 10