Dominant Terol Takes Easy Win At Indianapolis

The 125cc Grand Prix of Indianapolis went largely to form as Nicolas Terol stormed to his sixth victory of the season, extending his championship lead in the process. The Spaniard dominated the race from start to finish and was never under any great pressure from behind, with the battle for second raging on in his wake.

Sandro Cortese and Johann Zarco were the men hoping to take the fight to Terol from the front row of the grid but the pole sitter left them for dead at the start. His lead was over a second at the end of the first lap with Maverick Vinales coming through from fourth on the grid to take second ahead of Zarco and Hector Faubel.

The fight for second was initially between those three but a group of three riders behind them gradually hauled themselves into play. Cortese was leading it in fifth after a terrible first lap while Sergio Gadea and Efren Vazquez followed him closely. Danny Kent should have been with them but took a costly trip through the gravel on lap eight.

By half distance, the two packs had converged together and the battle for the second step on the podium now featured six riders. Surprisingly, it was Zarco who appeared to be in the most difficulty as faint trails of smoke started to leave the Derbi. The Frenchman slipped all the way back to seventh while Vinales used the incident as an opportunity to stretch away.

Another subsequence of Zarco's problem was the demise of Hector Faubel who lost third to Gadea before quickly falling into the clutches of Vazquez in sixth place. This allowed Cortese some breathing space and left him free to chase down Vinales, and with four laps left to run, the race was on again for P2.

The two swapped places lap after lap with turn one the overtaking hotspot. Cortese scythed past into second at the start of the penultimate lap but Vinales wouldn't be denied, returning the favour as the final lap got underway.

Despite pressurising the 16 year old through the final few turns, Cortese was forced to settle for third with Vinales an superb second. None of them had an answer for Terol though who cruised home almost unnoticed to a crushing victory.

Sergio Gadea just missed out on the podium in fourth  while Zarco managed to battle back to fifth as his Derbi machine returned to full capacity in the closing stages. Although he sneaked past teammate Vazquez on the run to the line, the Frenchman still lost valuable points in the race for the title.

Faubel eventually fell back to a lonely seventh with Miguel Oliveira bouncing back from the disappointment of Brno to finish eighth. Jonas Folger rode a quiet race to ninth while the in-form Jakub Kornfeil rounded out the top ten for Ongetta-Centro-Seta.

Unfortunately for the team, Harry Stafford couldn't join the Czech rider in the points after retiring early on. Taylor Mackenzie also had a difficult race which included a trip through the grass but he at least made it home in 21^st.

Danny Kent kept his head after the early mistake to rescue some points in 13^th but fellow Briton Danny Webb didn't take the start after injuring his hand in qualifying.

 

Race Result: 23 Laps

Pos	Rider	Nat	Bike	Team	Time/Gap
1	Nicolas Terol	SPA	Aprilia	Bankia Aspar Team	42:11.978
2	Maverick Vinales	SPA	Aprilia	Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing	+3.633
3	Sandro Cortese	GER	Aprilia	Intact-Racing Team Germany	+3.737
4	Sergio Gadea	SPA	Aprilia	Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing	+4.227
5	Johann Zarco	FRA	Derbi	Avant-AirAsia-Ajo	+14.186
6	Efren Vazquez	SPA	Derbi	Avant-AirAsia-Ajo	+14.200
7	Hector Faubel	SPA	Aprilia	Bankia Aspar Team	+18.477
8	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Aprilia	Andalucía Banca Civica	+23.992
9	Jonas Folger	GER	Aprilia	Red Bull Ajo MotorSport	+24.239
10	Jakub Kornfeil	CZE	Aprilia	Ongetta-Centro-Seta	+38.748
11	Simone Grotzkyj	ITA	Aprilia	Phonica Racing	+39.194
12	Louis Rossi	FRA	Aprilia	Matteoni Racing	+40.203
13	Danny Kent	GBR	Aprilia	Red Bull Ajo MotorSport	+44.088
14	Alexis Masbou	FRA	KTM	Caretta Technology	+45.201
15	Luigi Morciano	ITA	Aprilia	Team Italia FMI	+46.037
16	Jasper Iwema	NED	Aprilia	Ongetta-Abbink-Metaal	+58.451
17	Brad Binder	RSA	Aprilia	RW Racing GP	+1:12.015
18	Francesco Mauriello	ITA	Aprilia	WTR-Ten10 Racing	+1:12.898
19	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	MAL	Derbi	AirAsia-Sic-Ajo	+1:14.294
20	Joan Perello	SPA	Aprilia	Matteoni Racing	+1:23.947
21	Taylor Mackenzie	GBR	Aprilia	Phonica Racing	+1:29.369
22	Peter Sebestyen	HUN	KTM	Caretta Technology	+1:29.813
23	Alessandro Tonucci	ITA	Aprilia	Team Italia FMI	+1:34.296
24	Giulian Pedone	SWI	Aprilia	Phonica Racing	+2 Laps
Did Not Finish
	Marcel Schrotter	GER	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing	+1 Lap
	Adrian Martin	SPA	Aprilia	Bankia Aspar Team	+3 Laps
	Sturla Fagerhaug	NOR	Aprilia	WTR-Ten10 Racing	+12 Laps
	Niklas Ajo	FIN	Aprilia	TT Motion Events Racing	+16 Laps
	Harry Stafford	GBR	Aprilia	Ongetta-Centro-Seta	+16 Laps
	Danny Webb	GBR	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing	Non Starter
	Alberto Moncayo	SPA	Aprilia	Andalucía Banca Civica	Non Starter

 

Lap Leaders (23 Laps):

Terol (1-23)

 

Riders Championship (After Round 11: Indianapolis)

Pos	Rider	Nat	Bike	Team	Wins	Pts
1	Nicolas Terol	SPA	Aprilia	Bankia Aspar Team	6	191
2	Johann Zarco	FRA	Derbi	Avant-AirAsia-Ajo		165
3	Maverick Vinales	SPA	Aprilia	Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing	2	152
4	Sandro Cortese	GER	Aprilia	Intact-Racing Team Germany	1	147
5	Jonas Folger	GER	Aprilia	Red Bull Ajo MotorSport	1	117
6	Hector Faubel	SPA	Aprilia	Bankia Aspar Team	1	112
7	Efren Vazquez	SPA	Derbi	Avant-AirAsia-Ajo		100
8	Sergio Gadea	SPA	Aprilia	Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing		95
9	Luis Salom	SPA	Aprilia	RW Racing GP		76
10	Danny Kent	GBR	Aprilia	Red Bull Ajo MotorSport		49
11	Jakub Kornfeil	CZE	Aprilia	Ongetta-Centro-Seta		49
12	Alberto Moncayo	SPA	Aprilia	Andalucía Banca Civica		44
13	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Aprilia	Andalucía Banca Civica		33
14	Simone Grotzkyj	ITA	Aprilia	Phonica Racing		32
15	Adrian Martin	SPA	Aprilia	Bankia Aspar Team		30
16	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	MAL	Derbi	AirAsia-Sic-Ajo		20
17	Louis Rossi	FRA	Aprilia	Matteoni Racing		18
18	Marcel Schrotter	GER	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing		17
18	Taylor Mackenzie	GBR	Aprilia	Phonica Racing		15
19	Danny Webb	GBR	Mahindra	Mahindra Racing		14
21	Jasper Iwema	NED	Aprilia	Ongetta-Abbink-Metaal		13
22	Alexis Masbou	FRA	KTM	Caretta Technology		12
23	Niklas Ajo	FIN	Aprilia	TT Motion Events Racing		11
24	Hiroki Ono	JAP	KTM	Caretta Technology		8
25	Luigi Morciano	ITA	Aprilia	Team Italia FMI		6
26	Toni Finsterbusch	GER	KTM	Freudenberg Racing Team		4
27	Harry Stafford	GBR	Aprilia	Ongetta-Centro-Seta		3
28	John McPhee	GBR	Aprilia	Racing Steps Foundation KRP		1
29	Josep Rodriguez	SPA	Aprilia	Wild-Wolf-Racc-MS		1