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As the 125 rider’s psyched them selves up
for the final round of the championship on the grid at Valencia in
Spain; preparations would prove to be extra important for the two
riders still in contention for the world title. Aspar Aprilia
rider’s Gabor Talmacsi and Hector Faubel’s championship dice would
be the contest to watch once the lights went out and the swarm of
125cc riders set off on their 24 lap journey.
Aprilia is the most successful manufacturer in the 125cc class at
Valencia with five victories. Gilera, Honda and KTM have had one
victory each. This was reflected in Saturdays qualifying result with
the top ten being comprised completely of Aprilia’s, the highest
placed Honda’s being Repsol Honda riders Rabat and Smith in 11th and
12th places respectively.
Away from the line and young Spanish dynamo Pol Espargaro lead the
field followed closely by Bradley Smith, both started from the third
row and made explosive starts. Espargaro lead the way over the
course of the first lap with fellow Spaniard Pablo Nieto in behind
him after he relegated Smith to third.
Championship leader Talmacsi was quick to take over at the front of
the field as Espargaro was pushed out of the lead and back to third.
Talmacsi immediately began to pull a gap on the field as Faubel was
forced into a response, pushing his way from fifth to third and
mounting real pressure on Nieto in second.
Faubel quickly dispatched of Nieto and hastily set after Talmacsi at
the front, Talmacsi finished 2nd to Mika Kallio at Valencia in 2005
and would hope to go one better come the greeting of the checkered
flag this time around.
Faubel would hope to catch his teammate at the front and mount some
severe pressure, in order to force a mistake and maximize his points
gain, needing 10 more points than his teammate to snatch the
championship from the Hungarian; Talmacsi.
Talmacsi continued to set fastest lap after fastest lap as he held
the gap to Faubel in second. Nieto was hanging on to third but was
coming under some real pressure from Pesek; the pressure paid
shortly after as the Czech rider moved past Nieto and took over the
final podium place.
Meanwhile, back at the front Faubel was not giving up and responded
to Talmacsi in kind, setting a fastest lap of his own and breaking
the existing lap record. Faubel was now constantly closing the gap
to ‘Talma’ at the front, the thought of becoming world champion
surely enough to make him push that extra amount.
Rafaelle DeRosa crashed out of the race with 17 laps to run as Joan
Olive looked to be having mechanical issues on the same lap.
The race at the front would be of the two horse variety as Talmacsi
and Faubel had managed to gain a three second lead over Pesek and
Nieto behind them. Faubel took over at the front of the race on the
start-finish straight with 15 laps to run but slowed down instantly
at turn one and looked around at Talmacsi, gifting him back the race
lead. The mind games were just beginning.
The battle at the front began to heat up as the two Aspar Aprilia
riders began to swap paint, show each other their front wheels and
dice furiously at every twist and turn of the Valencian circuit.
Faubel was trying everything to force Talmacsi into a mistake and
providing endless entertainment for his home crowd in the process.
The dicing at the front was allowing Pasini, Nieto and Pesek in the
group behind to close the gap to the leading duo. Faubel was making
some extremely aggressive moves as the laps ticked down; Talmacsi
was conversely doing brilliantly to deal with the increasing
pressure.
With 10 laps to complete the order of the top 10 was being bravely
headed by Talmacsi from Faubel with a three second gap to Pasini,
Nieto, Pesek, Gadea, Rabat, Smith, Terol and Espargaro.
Talmacsi had managed to get his head down and pull another gap of
half a second over Faubel, his lap times dipping back into the 39’s
after he had pulled clear of his ‘nuisance’ in Hector Faubel.
The tension was beginning to build as the laps continued to count
down; Faubel was sticking with Talmacsi at the front and would
surely mount one last offensive effort in an attempt to really
rattle the cage of his title rival, Gabor Talmacsi.
With six laps to run Talmacsi’s lead had been whittled down to only
two tenths of a second, however Pasini in third was well and truly
out of contention for the race victory, still trailing by over three
seconds.
Faubel was up to his old tricks onto the final laps, roughing up his
teammate and trying everything in the book to cause a mistake from
the seemingly faultless Talmacsi.
Faubel was pushing it to the limit and pulled a very risky manoeuvre
at one point, lightly clipping the rear wheel of the Hungarian
championship leader and causing heart rates to sky-rocket in the
Aspar garage.
While the battle was raging at the front, the group behind them had
been able to close in tremendously, the gap to Faubel in second and
Gadea in third less than one second. Talmacsi’s worst nightmare
would be for more riders to get involved, as he needed as many
points as possible to ensure his title victory.
Onto the penultimate lap and the leading duo had transformed into a
pack of five. Talmacsi was still leading from Faubel, Gadea, Pasini
and Pesek. Talmacsi was riding with pure grit, holding Faubel behind
him at a constant distance of around half a second.
Talmacsi lead the field onto the final lap, as he had done all race.
Faubel would take over at turn one and look around as he had done
menacingly before. Talmacsi responded and immediately grabbed the
lead back.
Faubel was looking desperate and was throwing everything at Talmacsi
to cause a mistake and win the title. The Spaniard passed Talmacsi
on the final corner to take the race win, reaching the podium on
each of the last 10 races he has finished. However, Talmacsi’s
second place was enough to earn him the title of 2007 125cc world
champion.
Gadea rounded out an all Aspar Aprilia podium, mimicking his third
place finish at Valencia last year. Pasini, Pesek, Rabat, Nieto,
Smith, who is the first British rider since Clive Horton to finish
in the top ten of the 125cc world championship, Koyama and Espargaro
completed the top 10.
Talmacsi soaked up Faubel’s pressure like a sponge for the entire
race distance, even right up until the final corner. His second
place finish in an amazingly tense, tight and treacherous 125cc
encounter made him the first Hungarian rider to be crowned 125cc
world champion.
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