125cc: Pasini takes steady win at Motegi
Mattia Pasini took his fourth victory of the season in a wet 125cc race at Motegi
Pasini led from start to finish from pole position, eventually pulling away from Gabor Talmacsi at two-thirds distance to win by three seconds.
Talmacsi's championship rival Hector Faubel completed the podium, albeit almost 20 seconds behind him at the chequered flag. The result increased the gap between them by four points, Talmacsi now with a nine point lead with three races remaining.
However, there were other contenders for the podium positions. The start of the race saw Pasini, Talmacsi and Faubel gorm a group and edge away before they were soon caught by Sergio Gadea.
Lap six saw Raffaele de Rosa crash from sixth, followed seconds later by fourth-placed Gadea. The next lap saw Lukas Pesek take a tumble from fifth, as Mike di Meglio closed in on the leading group of three.
Di Meglio moved past Faubel into third on lap nine, Faubel's pace dropping immediately after being passed. Lap 10 saw the end of Bradley Smith's race, crashing from fifth position.
On lap 14 Pasini began to pull away slowly from Talmacsi, who had been right behind all the race up to this point. This meant Talmacsi now fell into the clutches of di Meglio, who still looked an outside chance to win.
A lap later saw di Meglio take second place from Talmacsi into turn one, but just two corners later he crashed. However, he got back onto his bike, di Meglio remarkably resuming in fourth place.
From there on it was a fairly quiet finish to the race, apart from a big highside for Pol Espargaro while running in eighth. Pasini took the win ahead of Talmacsi, with Faubel a distant third.
Di Meglio finished fourth despite his crash, just ahead of Joan Olive and Simone Corsi. Gadea remounted to finish eighth, while Lukas Pesek finished 12th despite a second crash later in the race.
Despite starting the race from second, Tomoyoshi Koyama struggled and only managed to finish in 14th place.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Rider Make Time 1. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 46:29.900 2. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia + 2.985 3. Hector Faubel Aprilia + 22.405 4. Mike di Meglio Honda + 33.751 5. Joan Olive Aprilia + 37.351 6. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 39.062 7. Pablo Nieto Aprilia + 44.488 8. Sergio Gadea Aprilia + 48.901 9. Michael Ranseder Derbi + 50.672 10. Andrea Iannone Aprilia + 56.674 11. D. Aegerter Aprilia +1:03.588 12. Lukas Pesek Derbi +1:10.334 13. Danny Webb Honda +1:14.579 14. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM +1:19.549 15. Stefan Bradl Aprilia +1:23.255 16. R. Tamburini Aprilia +1:28.289 17. Nicolas Terol Derbi +1:30.061 18. Kazuma Watanabe Honda +1:30.554 19. R. Krummenacher KTM +1:35.406 20. Nayuta Mizuno Yamaha +1:42.793 21. Alexis Masbou Honda +2:05.969 22. Shouya Tomizawa Honda + 4 laps NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Rider Make On Lap Simone Grotzkyj Aprilia 20 Pol Espargaro Aprilia 17 Iori Namihira Honda 14 Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 12 Bradley Smith Honda 9 Esteve Rabat Honda 9 Stefano Bianco Aprilia 8 Robert Muresan Derbi 8 Stevie Bonsey Ktm 7 Sandro Cortese Aprilia 7 Federico Sandi Aprilia 6 Raffaele de Rosa Aprilia 5 Y. Yanagisawa Honda 5 Dino Lombardi Honda 3
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments