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MotoGP 2008 - Round Four - Shanghai (China) |
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MotoGP 2008 - Round Four - Shanghai (China) |
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| MotoGP 2008 - Round Four - Shanghai (China) - 125cc Race |
| By Jake Leech Saturday’s qualifying results in the 125cc class were to prove meaningless come the greeting of the lights on Sunday. The morning warm-up was run in treacherously wet conditions and the forecast for the race was for similarly unpredictable conditions. Starting the race from pole position after Saturday’s dry qualifying session was young Englishman Bradley Smith; it was Smith’s third pole position out of four races this year. Joining him on the front row of the grid was Nico Terol, who starts from the front row for the third successive race and would be aiming for a third successive podium finish., wet weather specialist Mike DiMeglio and last year’s 125cc world champion Gabor Talmacsi. The second row was headed up by a rare appearance from young Italian Andrea Iannone, Belson Derbi teammates Joan Olive and Pol Espargaro and young German Stefan Bradl rounding things out in eighth place. Aprilia and Derbi riders occupied the first 12 positions of the grid, underlining the piaggio group’s domination of the lower cylinder classes. Away from the line and into the slippery and tight turn one and Bradley Smith lead the field and managed avoided the mass of spray suffered by the mid-field riders. He was followed closely by Andrea Iannone, who made a brilliant start from fifth position. Iannone continued his progress early and moved pass Smith over the course of the first lap. Iannone was looking strong at the front of the race, leading from Smith and Talmacsi. They held a small gap over Olive and DiMeglio in fourth and fifth. Round one race winner Sergio Gadea ran off track early on and only moments after recovering from this scare, he crashed out of the race. Talmacsi made a move past Smith as he got his head around the tricky conditions. He cruised by Iannone and took over at the head of the race. This was short lived however as Iannone fought back a matter of corners later, showing no respect for the Hungarians reputation. The next lap it was déjà vu for Talmacsi, the Hungarian making use of his factory backed Aprilia and blasting straight past Iannone down the extremely long Shanghai back straight. Iannone continued to be composed and calm and again moved back past Talmacsi to take over at the head of the race at turn one. Smith was still hanging onto the leading two protagonists, watching on from a safe distance, ready to capitalize on any misfortune that should befall either Iannone or Talmacsi. World Championship leader Simone Corsi crashed out of the race with 14 laps to run, after Joan Olive made a forceful move on the Italian, bashing into the side of him and taking him down. Corsi could have become the first Italian rider to take three successive GP victories in the 125cc class since Marco Melandri back in 1999. That dream had now dissipated like the misty rain that had coated the paddock all morning. Espargaro and DiMeglio in fourth and fifth had steadily closed in on the leading trio as the laps progressed. As the pressure increased, Bradley Smith succumbed and crashed out of the race. Once again, Smith was unable to take advantage of a great qualifying performance. Iannone continued to lead from Talmacsi. The gap back to Espargaro and DiMeglio in third was one and a half seconds with another 12 seconds back to DeRosa, Cortese and Ranseder in fifth, sixth and seventh places respectively. Michael Ranseder crashed out of the race with 11 laps remaining, he was able to re-mount. With 10 laps to run Iannone continued to lead proceedings from Talmacsi, Espargaro and DiMeglio with a large gap back to DeRosa, Cortese, Bradl, Webb, Olive and Terol rounding out the top 10. Renowned wet weather expert DiMeglio moved past Pol Espargaro for third place with 9 laps to go. He went on to set a fastest lap of the race as he stalked after the leading duo of Iannone and Talmacsi. The casualties continued to come thick and fast down the order as both Danny Webb and Robert Muresan crashed out, both were able to walk away unharmed. Iannone continued to push very hard into the second half of the race. Setting a fastest lap of his own and establishing a gap to Talmacsi behind him. The signs were looking good for Iannone, especially considering he had started from his best ever grid position of fifth place. Crashing continued to be a recurring theme in the dicey conditions, Sandro Cortese crashing out of sixth place with seven laps to go. Iannone continued to lap with amazing speed and consistency, setting fastest lap after fastest lap and extending his advantage over Talmacsi behind him. Rafaelle DeRosa, who was lapping as quickly as the race leaders, went down with six laps to run, he was able to re-mount. Another quick man on track, Frenchman Mike DiMeglio, continued his forward progress. After qualifying on the front row for just the fourth time in his GP career, he moved past the floundering Talmacsi for second place and now had Andrea Iannone in his sights. With five laps to run, DiMeglio set the fastest lap of the race as he attempted to eat into Iannone’s two second advantage. A lap later, Iannone had responded and increased his advantage over DiMeglio and Talmacsi behind him. The young Italian looked odds on to take his maiden 125cc victory, so long as he remained calm and composed. The third of the English contingent in 15 year old Scott Redding crashed out of 13th place with three laps remaining; he was unable to rejoin after limping away from a nasty high-side. Randy Krumenacher joined the list of retirees late on in the race as his KTM gave up the ghost, much to his displeasure. Onto the penultimate lap and Iannone’s lead had increased to some four seconds over DiMeglio and Talmacsi. He would surely now go on to claim his first ever grand prix victory. Onto the last lap and Iannone lead the way by over five seconds. All he had to do was remain calm and not panic over the course of the last lap and he would win his first ever 125cc race. 18 year old Iannone showed the steely resolve of a 20 year veteran over the last lap, cruising home for a richly deserved maiden victory and celebrating whole-heartedly with an impressive stand up wheelie. DiMeglio managed to hold of Talmacsi to claim second place. Pol Espargaro rode home in a lonely fourth place followed some time later by Stefan Bradl, Joan Olive, Ranseder, Terol, DeRosa and Vazquez rounded out the top 10. The day definitely belonged to young Italian Andrea Iannone; he was superb in extremely trying conditions and deserved his debut victory. Corsi, who crashed out of the race, still leads the championship from Olive and Terol. DiMeglio is handily placed in fourth in the title race. He will hope to continue on from his solid second place here at Shanghai in two weeks time at his home track of Le Mans. |
| 125cc Race Result | 125cc Championship |
| 1 Andrea IANNONE ITA I.C. Team Aprilia
46'02.275 130.769 2 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Ajo Motorsport Derbi 46'05.630 130.610 3.355 3 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Bancaja Aspar Team Aprilia 46'05.726 130.605 3.451 4 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Belson Derbi Derbi 46'16.303 130.108 14.028 5 Stefan BRADL GER Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing Aprilia 46'26.128 129.649 23.853 6 Joan OLIVE SPA Belson Derbi Derbi 46'34.237 129.273 31.962 7 Michael RANSEDER AUT I.C. Team Aprilia 46'36.033 129.190 33.758 8 Nicolas TEROL SPA Jack & Jones WRB Aprilia 46'36.971 129.146 34.696 9 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA Onde 2000 KTM KTM 46'37.113 129.140 34.838 10 Efren VAZQUEZ SPA Blusens Aprilia Junior Aprilia 46'43.286 128.856 41.011 11 Esteve RABAT SPA Repsol KTM 125cc KTM 46'43.414 128.850 41.139 12 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol KTM 125cc KTM 46'45.952 128.733 43.677 13 Tomoyoshi KOYAMA JPN ISPA KTM Aran KTM 46'55.764 128.285 53.489 14 Stevie BONSEY USA Degraaf Grand Prix Aprilia 46'56.737 128.240 54.462 15 Pere TUTUSAUS SPA Bancaja Aspar Team Aprilia 47'00.981 128.047 58.706 16 Sandro CORTESE GER Emmi - Caffe Latte Aprilia 47'01.729 128.013 59.454 17 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Ajo Motorsport Derbi 47'12.979 127.505 1'10.704 18 Louis ROSSI FRA FFM Honda GP 125 Honda 47'50.193 125.852 1'47.918 19 Hugo VAN DEN BERG NED Degraaf Aprilia 47'52.681 125.743 1'50.406 |
1 Simone CORSI ITA Jack & Jones WRB 59
2 Joan OLIVE SPA Belson Derbi 50 3 Nicolas TEROL SPA Jack & Jones WRB 50 4 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Ajo Motorsport 49 5 Stefan BRADL GER Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing 48 6 Sergio GADEA SPA Bancaja Aspar Team 32 7 Andrea IANNONE ITA I.C. Team 32 8 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Bancaja Aspar Team 30 9 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Belson Derbi 26 10 Stevie BONSEY USA Degraaf Grand Prix 25 11 Danny WEBB GBR Degraaf Grand Prix 21 12 Scott REDDING GBR Blusens Aprilia Junior 20 13 Sandro CORTESE GER Emmi - Caffe Latte 17 14 Bradley SMITH GBR Polaris World 16 15 Efren VAZQUEZ SPA Blusens Aprilia Junior 14 16 Michael RANSEDER AUT I.C. Team 12 17 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Ajo Motorsport 12 18 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA Onde 2000 KTM 12 19 Pablo NIETO SPA Onde 2000 KTM 11 20 Esteve RABAT SPA Repsol KTM 125cc 9 21 Tomoyoshi KOYAMA JPN ISPA KTM Aran 6 22 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol KTM 125cc 4 23 Stefano BIANCO ITA S3+ WTR San Marino Team 3 24 Pere TUTUSAUS SPA Bancaja Aspar Team 1 25 Takaaki NAKAGAMI JPN I.C. Team 1 |
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MotoGP 2008 - Round Four - Shanghai (China)
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