MotoGP – The British Grand Prix 125 lap by lap –

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The British Grand Prix 125 lap by lap

MotoGP - The British Grand Prix 125 lap by lap -

Difficult to establish a prognosis for the battle of the aces of the cylinders with holes … Between the changing weather, sharp rivals and young riders with long teeth, sure that the game will not be easy for the leader of the championship, Mike di Meglio !

Our Frenchie Mike di Meglio may claim to focus on his races one after the other, the fourteen points ahead of his rival Simone Corsi place him well and truly in the lead of the 125 category, and therefore mathematically in vying for the world title! However the capricious English climate could serve the interests of Mike, formidable in the conditions of precarious adhesion !

"Simone Corsi is great right now, but I don’t think there is anyone who stands out. You have to try to be as consistent as possible, in the top four or five, because it can happen that there are a few drivers who make a splash … So you will have to take advantage of the mistakes of others", calmly analyzed Mike di Meglio shortly before the English round…

A prophetic caution for the Ajo Motorsport driver, who will pay for gearbox concerns with a catastrophic ranking on Friday (21st!), While his rival Corsi signs the pole during the first qualifying practice session … Unfortunately for the French, in GP125 it is the best time of the two qualifying sessions (Friday and Saturday) which prevails for the classification on the grid. Simone Corsi was therefore able to take advantage of a dry track on Friday to strike a pendulum that no one will be able to beat the next day on a wet and tricky track (19 falls!)…

The positions will therefore not change and Corsi will start from pole ahead of Talmacsi and Gadea. Mike will have to give everything to recover from his distant 20th place, while the whole Derbi clan has a thought for the young Pol Espargaro, victim of a heavy fall resulting in a broken collarbone and his forfeit for the event. Jules Cluzel will start from 25th place, while his teammate Alexis Masbou is classified 27th…

Zoom on…

Louis Rossi, the FFM pilot : in difficulty since the start of the season, the Honda rider is 31st on the grid. To make matters worse, the young French hope fell during the session in the rain: "I slipped from the back on the last corner of the circuit. I had already had a lot of fears on this circuit made extremely slippery by the rain. I left halfway through the session, but it is difficult to regain confidence in these conditions"…

The race !

Departure : Of the 37 drivers registered in the English race, it is the Spaniard Sergio Gadea who is the quickest to release the clutch: the n ° 33 precedes Andrea Iannone, Simone Corsi, Marc Marquez, Scott Redding and Bradley Smith. From the third corner, the unfortunate Pablo Nieto made a mistake and his motorcycle finished its race in the middle of the track, narrowly avoided by the rest of the peloton! "I got hit by another rider and it drove me off the track", explains the 27-year-old Spaniard."Because of my speed, I had to brake from the front to avoid returning to the circuit by cutting off the trajectory of the other drivers and I fell…

Andrea Iannone goes inside at Gadea and takes the lead: the 18-year-old Italian tries to widen the gap as quickly as possible to protect himself from a probable comeback by the leader of the championship, Mike di Meglio.

2nd and 3rd rounds : The winner of the Chinese round completes the first lap in the lead followed by Marquez, Corsi, Gadea, locals Scott Redding and Bradley Smith, then Raffaele de Rosa. Mike di Meglio is 19th ahead of Jules Cluzel: the climb will be long for the Toulouse pilot !

Gabor Talmacsi is picked up in the gravel, unharmed, but injured in his pride as reigning world champion…

In front, the battle rages on and Sergio Gadea has managed to regain second place in a (very) provisional way: a gap of the Spaniard makes him downgrade to third position behind the surprising Scott Redding! Preceded by Iannone, the two pilots lead a group made up of Corsi, Marquez, Smith and De Rosa.

But the current leader in the general classification has started to sound the charge: Mike di Meglio already appears in 13th place! Jules Cluzel is 17th and Alexis Masbou 20th.

4th and 5th rounds : Scott Redding signs the best lap time: we feel that the young Englishman is capable of teasing Andrea Iannone in the middle of a solitary breakaway !

The gap between the two leading men is narrowing and Redding is already only 1.7 seconds behind Iannone! Visibly benefiting from the new chassis developed by KTM, Marquez is solid third ahead of Corsi, Gadea, De Rosa, Rabat, Koyama, Bradl and Di Meglio who takes all the risks to come back in contact with the leaders !

6th and 7th rounds : Alexis Masbou and his Loncin leave the track and it is abandonment for the Albigensian. The development of the Chinese motorcycle appears delicate: to compensate for power and acceleration below the competition, Alexis and his teammate Jules Cluzel have to take a lot of risks … and sometimes to push the mechanics to its limits! "My engine broke and I had to give up", confides the smiling Alexis:"what’s more, I broke my ankle and I hope that will be restored for Assen !"

Iannone continues to lead the race, followed at a distance by Scott Redding who grabs her meter after meter with the lap record! Sergio Gadea returned to third position ahead of De Rosa and Marquez. Doubling Simone Corsi, her main title rival, "Magic Mike", is now in eighth position !

8th and 9th rounds : Scott Redding continues his comeback and is only one second away from Andrea Iannone! The Englishman is excited on his land and would see himself on the top step of the podium in his first season in the world championship !

While Mike di Meglio is now in sixth place, his main rival Simone Corsi is downgrading to twelfth! If the French continue at this pace and Corsi does not reach the top 10, Mike would achieve an excellent accounting operation! Aware of his opponent’s difficulties for the title, the n ° 63 took advantage of an error by Marc Marquez to steal fifth place, before making a fantastic braking on de Rosa and Gadea which he overtook in one fell swoop. !

10th round : Contrary to his wise statements, Mike di Meglio manhandles his Derbi: the 5 seconds which separate him from the two men in front of him do not seem insurmountable to him! Behind, Marquez, Gadea and De Rosa are struggling to keep pace with No.63, but it looks tough…

11th, 12th and 13th laps : Andrea Iannone still has 1.041 seconds ahead of Scott Redding and more than 6.6 seconds over Mike who did not take anything back from the two men. Esteve Rabat comes out a little wide on the left and has to straighten out to avoid falling: the 18-year-old Spaniard loses a lot of time in this maneuver and lets his pursuers slip away.

Mike di Meglio, Sergio Gadea and Marc Marquez continue to follow each other in a handkerchief and the group continue to lose a few handfuls of tenths on Iannone and Redding.

14th, 15th and 16th laps : Under the eyes (delighted!) Of his audience, the young Scott Redding considerably reduced his gap on the leading man, while the mechanics of Stefan Bradl’s Aprilia swift seemed to betray his pilot…

For his eighth Grand Prix, the Englishman Scott Redding is delighting his country, his fans and his team: returning to Iannone’s exhaust, the n ° 45 takes all the aspiration possible in the straight line, but without manage to win … for now! Mike di Meglio still contains Marquez and Gadea, but the Frenchman will probably not be able to come and join the fight in the lead…

17th and 18th laps : Andrea Iannone still leads the race ahead of Redding, Di Meglio, Marquez, Gadea, De Rosa, Koyama and Rabbat. Jules Cluzel is at the point door, just behind Ranseder.

19th and 20th laps : Trying to contain the pressure of the young Redding behind him, Andrea Iannone wants to do too much at the entrance of the curve on the right downhill: he loses the front of his Aprilia of the I.C team! A real twist in this GP, victory is now within Scott Redding’s handlebars, while our Frenchie recovers the second position and the 20 (big!) Points which go hand in hand! Follow Marc Marquez, Sergio Gadea and Raffaele de Rosa.

21st and 22nd laps : Marc Marquez achieves a superb overtaking on Mike di Meglio at the end of the short straight line of the pits: here are the two first places of the race occupied by two "kids" of 15 years !

Scott Redding now has more than seven seconds ahead of Marc Marquez and Mike di Meglio, who must certainly question the risks involved in trying to overtake the young Iberian: he is indeed not dangerous in the championship and Mike has a lot to lose if he fails…

That is to say: a driver remains a driver and the Toulouse resident decides to pass the Spanish and reclaim the points of second place! A fighter’s state of mind which could serve him at the end of the season in the fight for the title, but also for a possible proposal to race in GP 250 in 2009: "I have an option for an additional year with Ajo Motorsport, after that it will depend on whether the team intends to move up to the higher category. If so, I will follow !", explains n ° 63 !

23rd round : Scott Redding flies to "his" national victory, followed by Mike di Meglio, Marc Marquez, Sergio Gadea and Raffaele De Rosa.

Last round : Imagining winning his first race in GP 125 on his national circuit and at the age of only 15 should not even touch the wildest dreams of young Scott Redding! It is however done at the end of a last lap led drastically by the Englishman who precedes on the line Mike di Meglio and Marc Marquez! After a stubborn race, Jules Cluzel failed in his quest for the point scored, since it was the Italian Zanetti who stole fifteenth place from him at the end of the race….

In the general classification, Mike recovers precious points and consolidates his lead in the world championship with 132 points against 109 for Simone Corsi who finished the race 5th. The unlucky Stefan Bradl is still third with 77 points ahead of Nicolas Terol and the injured of the weekend, Pol Espargaro.

Rank 125
1- REDDING S. 6- KOYAMA T. 11- FLAP E.
2- DI MEGLIO M. 7- OLIVE J. 12- RANSEDER M.
3- MARK M. 8- NAKAGAMI T. 13- KRUMMENACHER R.
4- GADEA S. 9- CORTESE S. 14- DE ROSA R.
5- CORSI S. 10- SMITH B. 15- ZANETTI L.

Jules CLUZEL: 16th. Louis ROSSI: 23rd

They explain themselves

Scott Redding (1st) : "It’s incredible ! Qualifying on the front row when I had never driven a 125 here! It’s my first podium, and I’m also on the first step! I don’t realize it yet, but when I do I’m sure it will be fantastic !"

Mike di Meglio (2nd) : "I wanted to get off to a good start, because I was really far on the grid. When I came third, Scott and Iannone were already far away. I was under pressure from Marquez, especially on the last lap"…

Marc Marquez (3rd) : "I’m very happy, it’s my first podium in my first season and I can’t ask for better! I dedicate this result to my team. It was a good race and the wind complicated things, but I’m on the podium and I’m delighted !"

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR and F. KIRN

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