In spite of rain in the warm up the 125cc riders were able to race on a dry track, even though black clouds over the circuit threatened rain at any moment. In the end no rain fell and the crowd saw an exciting race at Mugello in Italy.
Scott Redding had a good start – ending the first lap in second position whilst Marc Márquez was 9th, and Esteve Rabat 10th. A group of 8 riders rapidly formed at the front of the field, with Terol, Smith, Simón, Zarco, Iannone, Web and another two Repsol riders, Márquez and Redding. These soon opened up a gap over the others. After one third of the laps in the race the group was down to six after Iannone had mechanical problems and Web fell.
The two Repsol riders, Redding and Márquez, stayed in the middle of the leading group until the halfway stage when Simón, Smith and Terol upped the pace and got away from the rest to occupy the three podium positions. And so with this panorama Márquez and Redding began a battle together with Zarco, Cortese and Espargaró for 4th position.
The final part of the race, won in the end by Smith, was a continuous succession of changing positions for Espargaró, Cortese, Zarco, Redding and Márquez who was at the back waiting to see how things would pan out. With three laps left the definitive battle began, with Márquez, Redding, Espargaró and Cortese fighting for 4th position, with Zarco watching all the manoeuvres at the back of the group. Espargaró got a small lead whilst the two Repsol riders overtook each other, that allowed him to finish in 4th position. Marc Márquez was 5th after a good performance and Scott Redding, with a fright on the final corner before the home straight, he was almost thrown off his bike, finished 7th.
Further back was Esteve Rabat, Scott Redding`s teammate. The Spaniard who was 10th at the end of the first lap dropped down the field until he was 16th at the chequered flag.
Marc Márquez, 5th at 12.315 secs. >> Audio
“At the beginning I thought I could stay in the group with Simón and Bradley [Smith], because the track was slippery after the rain in the morning. Thanks to the slipstream Smith, Simón and Terol were able to set a fast pace, and with Web`s fall the group broke up and three riders were left out in front with us behind them. It was quite a tough race, the set up was a good one but the tyres wore out very quickly. I knew that after the halfway mark I was going to have to suffer and I did the best I could to maintain a good position. What is clear thinking about the race at Montmeló, is that both the team and me will have to work to try and get a good result. I am pleased because I would have settled for 5th position on the Friday, this is because the GP got very difficult right from the start, but we were calm enough to try different things until we got the right set up and so be able to fight to get a good result. On the last lap I tried to catch Pol [Espargaró], but I did not have enough acceleration, and I am pleased with having finished 5th.”
Esteve Rabat, 16th at 36.834 secs. >> Audio
“I had a good start overtaking several rivals, and I got into the leading group, but after five or six laps the rear wheel was really sliding around and it was hard controlling the bike. I was getting left behind and I did what I could just to stay on the bike. And on the final lap four or five riders overtook me because the rear wheel was sliding around so much that I could not use the throttle.”
Scott Redding, 7th at 15.305 secs. >> Audio
“I had a good start and I stayed in 2nd place on the first corner. During the first ten laps I had a problem with the rear wheel; it was vibrating quite a lot on the fast corners and it was hard to keep up with Simón. In fact I felt more confident when leading the group, but on the fast corners they got away from me. At the end I almost fell on the final corner and I dropped down one position, something happened to the engine and suddenly the revs rose quickly whipping the bike, this even broke a part of the seat. Whatever, it was a good race and I am in good spirits for Catalunya.”
