125cc: Gadea takes first victory
Sergio Gadea scored his maiden victory in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, while Briton Bradley Smith took his first 125cc podium in third
16-year-old Smith had a mature, controlled race, and ultimately benefited from yet another retirement by Italian Mattia Pasini.
The first lap saw Pasini, who was starting from pole position, losing a place to Tomoyoshi Koyama, but he regained the lead at the second corner.
Smith didn't have a good getaway from second spot and was in fifth by the first corner. He reclaimed a position before the first lap was over, and by lap five he was in third.
Meanwhile, Gadea overtook Koyama and started making up the lost time to Pasini, who within two laps had opened a 1.8 seconds gap. By lap 10 the two were together.
Just half a second behind them, Smith controlled Lukas Pesek, who had a three-second advantage over fifth-placed Gabor Talmacsi.
Talmacsi led a group of eight hard-fighting riders, including Hector Faubel, Raffaele de Rosa (who fell on lap 12 and rejoined in 29th place), Koyama, Simone Corsi, Mike di Meglio, Andrea Iannone (who fell on lap 14 and retired) and Pablo Nieto.
Lap 12 saw the start of an exchange of lead between Gadea and Pasini, with the Spaniard seemingly having an advantage in the last sector, while the Italian looked faster in the first sector.
On lap 19, however, Pasini's race was over, as he slowed down and retired for the fourth race out of five this year. His disappointment was very obvious as he walked back to the pits looking very dejected and refusing to comment on his misfortunes.
Pesek overtook Smith for second place on the following lap, but while he managed to put some distance between himself and the Briton (2.4 seconds by the end), he was unable to get close enough to Gadea, who ultimately beat him by half a second.
Talmacsi went on to take fourth place, ahead of Joan Olive, Nieto, Faubel, Sandro Cortese, Corsi and di Meglio completing the top ten.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 41:50.112 2. Lukas Pesek Derbi + 0.478 3. Bradley Smith Honda + 2.963 4. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia + 13.516 5. Joan Olive Aprilia + 13.845 6. Pablo Nieto Aprilia + 14.936 7. Hector Faubel Aprilia + 15.098 8. Sandro Cortese Aprilia + 15.603 9. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 15.664 10. Mike Di Meglio Honda + 15.777 11. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM + 19.108 12. Pol Espargaro Aprilia + 23.920 13. Alexis Masbou Honda + 24.210 14. R.Krummenacher KTM + 29.517 15. Michael Ranseder Derbi + 29.701 16. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia + 45.124 17. Stefano Bianco Aprilia + 45.308 18. S.G.Giorgi Aprilia + 46.142 19. Nicolas Terol Derbi + 46.350 20. D.Aegerter Aprilia +1:00.825 21. Dino Lombardi Honda +1:00.948 22. R.Tamburini Aprilia +1:09.701 23. Robert Muresan Derbi +1:10.101 24. H.van den Berg Aprilia +1:10.295 25. Joey Litjens Honda +1:10.471 26. Federico Sandi Aprilia +1:16.496 27. Daniel Webb Honda +1:21.822 28. Romain Maitre Honda + 1 lap 29. Steven Le Coquen Honda + 1 lap Not classified/retirements: Mattia Pasini Aprilia Raffaele De Rosa Aprilia Andrea Iannone Aprilia Julien Cartron Honda Steve Bonsey KTM
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