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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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