125cc: Faubel wins thrilling Estoril race
Hector Faubel won a thrilling 125cc Portuguese Grand Prix by beating championship rival and teammate Gabor Talmacsi on the line
The Spaniard is now only five points behind the Hungarian in the championship with four races to go.
The second half of the race saw a massive four-way fight between the two title contenders, Pol Espargaro and Simone Corsi after Mattia Pasini, who started the race from pole, slid off from a 1.2-second race lead on lap 11.
Pasini managed to get back on the bike and rejoin the track, but by then he fell down to 13th place, 13.5 seconds behind new race leader Corsi.
On lap 14 Corsi was overtaken by both Talmacsi and Faubel, but it was 16-year-old Espargaro was was making a big impression by going from fifth to first within the space of three laps.
The young Spaniard managed to hold on to the race lead until two laps from the end, when Corsi first and then the title rivals challenged him.
Ultimately Espargaro had to settle for third place and a deserved maiden podium, while ahead of him Faubel managed to retake the lead from Talmacsi on the front straight in the final lap to win by 0.132 seconds.
Corsi ended up fourth, while Joan Olive, who stayed with the leaders throughout the race but never really challenged them, finished in fifth.
Stefan Bradl took sixth place, while seventh was taken by Tomoyoshi Koyama's KTM, the first non-Aprilia bike.
Pasini ultimately classified in eighth, ahead of Raffaele de Rosa and Randy Krummenacher rounding up the top ten.
CLASSIFIED:
Pos Rider Make Time
1. Hector Faubel Aprilia 40:46.337
2. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia + 0.132
3. Pol Espargaro Aprilia + 0.235
4. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 1.001
5. Joan Olive Aprilia + 1.188
6. Stefan Bradl Aprilia + 7.579
7. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM + 8.297
8. Mattia Pasini Aprilia + 8.957
9. Raffaele De Rosa Aprilia + 8.984
10. R.Krummenacher KTM + 14.052
11. Esteve Rabat Honda + 14.123
12. Bradley Smith Honda + 18.145
13. Lukas Pesek Derbi + 21.118
14. Alexis Masbou Honda + 31.521
15. Stefano Bianco Aprilia + 31.612
16. Mike Di Meglio Honda + 31.648
17. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia + 31.945
18. Andrea Iannone Aprilia + 31.986
19. Federico Sandi Aprilia + 44.317
20. Daniel Webb Honda +1:01.566
21. S.G.Giorgi Aprilia +1:03.909
22. R.Tamburini Aprilia +1:04.002
23. Robert Muresan Derbi +1:06.216
24. Louis Rossi Honda +1:09.350
NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:
Rider Make On Lap
Dino Lombardi Honda 19
Pere Tutusaus Aprilia 16
Sergio Gadea Aprilia 13
Sandro Cortese Aprilia 10
Michael Ranseder Derbi 10
Steve Bonsey KTM 9
Nicolas Terol Derbi 8
Pablo Nieto Aprilia 6
D.Agerter Aprilia 5
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