The final race of the day was for once in the 125cc category, and a great Marc Márquez on a high until an unfortunate fall when he was second ended his hopes. Esteve Rabat was seventh, after some detailed work allowed him to fight for 5th position. His teammate, Scott Redding, had worse luck as mechanical problems meant he could not finish better than 16th. Cameron Beaubier won no points either after a fall on lap 5.
When the race began Márquez was on the right of the grid and won the initial sprint to the first turn, giving an example of his intentions in today`s race. The Repsol rider dominated the leading group bravely, winning the battle when he braked but losing out on the straights. He was soon the star of a group of seven containing the favourites in the category and when Julián Simón tried to escape Márquez just kept on his rear wheel, fearing that he would get away.
Nico Terol had a spectacular fall when he grazed Bradley Smith`s bike and this meant that the group slowly broke up with Simón getting away from Márquez, who in turn left the rest of his rivals trailing. However, he was unlucky on lap 12, coming out of turn 5 he was thrown off his KTM, and any reward for all the hard work done this weekend vanished at that moment.
The best Repsol rider was Esteve Rabat, who after a lot of detailed work this weekend, was patient and managed to climb to 7th position. The Repsol rider started 17th, and after the first lap was 10th. In his battle with Efrén Vázquez for 9th position he lost contact with the leading group and got into a fight with Gadea and Olivé, which lasted to the finish. Helped by falls among the leaders the battle involving five riders in the chasing group became a dogfight for 5th place, and Rabat, who had been in that position on the penultimate lap, had to make do with 7th place.
A positive result, in stark contrast to Scott Redding`s, a rider who has tasted a bit of everything this weekend. Engine problems conditioned his practice, both on the Friday as well as on the Saturday, in addition to this morning`s warm-up, but today it was the swingarm on his Aprilia that broke. In the race, in spite of starting 24th and climbing to 16th, he had more engine problems and this is what stopped him from finishing in a higher position. Ha managed to finish the race but on a bike that lacked power he had to make do with 16th position.
Cameron Beaubier did not get any points either, and after solving the problems with the setup, began the race confident he could do well. After a good start he climbed ten positions on the first lap, to 16th, although on the next few laps he was in the thick of a battle and fell back to 20th position. But on lap 5, coming out of the slow chicane that defines the circuit of Estoril, he skidded and was thrown of his bike and was not able to return to the race.
Marc Márquez, fell >> Audio
“This was quite a nice race. I had a great start and was in the lead at the end of the straight. A great way to start a race, but the engine was not quite up to it, and although I lost on the straights I won it back on the turns. I felt fine today, confident, so I deided to go for it. Julito Simón got away from me a bit just when I was getting away from the chasing group, but in the end I was unlucky today. A pity because I think we are doing some good work with the team. So I just have to apologise to them all for making that mistake. I hope that we have a better race in Australia.”
Esteve Rabat, 7th at 17.300 secs. >> Audio
“I did not have a good start, the engine was flooded a little on the grid and that made the first few laps a bit complicated. I grazed Efrén Vázquez`s bike – I went long and went off the track – and that meant I lost contact with the leading group. Then I was caught by Gadea and Olivé and we had a fight practically the whole race. Others joined us, Aegerter, Zarco and another rider, and in the end we managed to finish the race, that is important, and in 7th position. I am pleased with the result but we have to carry on working hard because there are three races left. Phillip Island is my favourite of all the circuits in the calendar, I also like Malaysia a lot and then the final race in Valencia, at home, so we will have to see what we can do and try to get a happy ending to the season.”
Scott Redding, 16th at 54.332 secs. >> Audio
“This weekend was practically the same as last weekend. For the race we thought that we had solved the engine problems, but it broke again and it began to lose power. This morning the swingarm broke a little and I almost had a bad fall, yesterday the engine seized up.. so I don`t have much to say. The race did not begin well as I had no power in the engine and overall this has been a bad weekend. I do not know what will happen in the next race, but we always think that things can only get better but it never happens. We will see what happens in Australia.”
Cameron Beaubier, fell. >> Audio
“I still had problems in the warm up this morning, just like the rest of the weekend, but I followed other riders and I was able to improve on the section at the end of the circuit. In the race I had a great start and that meant I could overtake other riders on the first lap, but some of them got past me on laps two and three. In spite of this I was able to follow them, but with some problems on the final part of the track. I recovered time on the other sections, but coming out of the chicane, on lap 5, I skidded violently and I was not able to avoid a fall. The bike fell on top of me and it was hardly damaged, but the race marshalls did not let me continue. A pity.”
