125cc: Espargaro wins as Simon crashes

Espargaro resisted the challenge from fellow Derbi rider Sandro Cortese (Ajo) and Bradley Smith, whose Aspar Aprilia team-mate Simon crashed two thirds into the 23-lap race while leading by a massive six seconds.

Simon, who managed nevertheless to rejoin the race and classify 12th, now holds a 50-point margin over Smith with three races to go this season, while Nicolas Terol remains 10.5 points further adrift after crashing ten laps before Simon while fighting in the leading group.

At that point the running was led by a large bunch of nine riders fighting tooth and nail. Terol hit Smith, who was rejoining the track at slower speed after running wide, with the brake lever of his Jack&Jones Aprilia, with the Spaniard crashing as a result.

On lap eight Efren Vazquez crashed his Derbi and left the leading pack down to seven riders, which became six two laps later when Terol's team-mate Simone Corsi crashed out of second position after setting the fastest lap of the race up to that point.

Three laps later it was Marc Marquez's turn to drop out of second place after a massive high side with his KTM that fortunately didn't cause him any injury.

So, with Stefan Bradl (Kiefer Aprilia) losing touch with the leading group, it was left to Espargaro, Cortese and Smith to fight it out to the end.

The three crossed the finish line in that order after Smith lost the lead on the penultimate lap to Espargaro, and while the Spaniard was opening a bit of a gap the Briton was also passed by Cortese at the beginning of the last lap.

Bradl classified a distant and lonely fourth, followed five seconds later by a large group of riders: Jean Olive, Sergio Gadea, Esteve Rabat, Dominique Agerter and Johann Zarco.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Pol Espargaro     Derbi    41m00.421s   
 2.  Sandro Cortese    Derbi    +   0.394s
 3.  Bradley Smith     Aprilia  +   0.581s
 4.  Stefan Bradl      Aprilia  +  11.048s
 5.  Joan Olive        Derbi    +  16.830s
 6.  Sergio Gadea      Aprilia  +  17.170s
 7.  Esteve Rabat      Aprilia  +  17.300s
 8.  D.Agerter         Derbi    +  17.546s
 9.  Johann Zarco      Aprilia  +  17.666s
10.  R.Krummenacher    Aprilia  +  21.378s
11.  Takaaki Nakagami  Aprilia  +  26.312s
12.  Julian Simon      Aprilia  +  31.500s
13.  Lorenzo Zanetti   Aprilia  +  34.194s
14.  Jonas Folger      Aprilia  +  35.023s
15.  Luis Salom        Aprilia  +  54.243s
16.  Scott Redding     Aprilia  +  54.332s
17.  Jasper Iwema      Honda    +1m02.994s
18.  Alberto Moncayo   Aprilia  +1m03.054s
19.  Sturla Fagerhaug  KTM      +1m03.061s
20.  Johnny Rosell     Aprilia  +1m24.171s
21.  Jakub Jantulik    Aprilia  +1m37.379s
22.  Luca Vitali       Aprilia  +1m50.590s
23.  Quentin Jacquet   Aprilia  +1m50.852s
24.  Jordi Dalmau      Honda    + 1 lap
25.  Jakub Kornfeil    Loncin   + 1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike     Laps
     Daniel Webb       Aprilia   22
     Michael Ranseder  Aprilia   17
     Luca Marconi      Aprilia   13
     Marc Marquez      KTM       12
     Simone Corsi      Aprilia    9 
     Nicolas Terol     Aprilia    8 
     Efren Vazquez     Derbi      7 
     Cameron Beaubier  KTM        4 
     Tomoyoshi Koyama  Loncin     3 
     Andrea Iannone    Aprilia    2 

FASTEST LAP: Cortese, 1m45.722s on lap 11