After the long journey to China, the GP comes back to Europe, in the historical circuit of the 24 hours of Le Mans, France. The 125 cc bikes opened the week end with the first qualifying practice. The grey sky over the circuit and a few drops seemed to threaten the session. Luckily it was just a false alarm and the practice could take place in dry conditions. Aprilia performed well, conquering the first provisional row and placing six bikes in the first ten positions.
Sergio Gadea, on his RSA of the Bancaja Aspar team, got the provisional pole with the time of 1’43”515. The Valencian rider proved to have finally regained the good shape he showed in Qatar and seemed to be very confident in the French track, where he conquered the first victory of his career last year. Bradley Smith, 0.099” behind, proved once again to be extremely fast on this track. Bradl is third with the time of 1’43”710, while Simone Corsi, very determined to make up for his performance in China, completes the first provisional row, just a tenth from the young German rider.
“I am very happy – said Gadea – I needed this result after all the problems we ha d encountered over the last two races. We have finally found the right path to follow and there is still room for improvement. I like this track a lot, I won my first race here last year, and I hope I can do this again this year”.
“I am happy – said Smith – even though we have worked in quite a strange way. At first, due to some rain drops, we tried to set the time and we made it. Then, as the weather conditions were stable, we worked in the view of the race. The pace is good and I managed to improve my time. I am confident we can do even better tomorrow. I intend to obtain good results in this circuit were I obtained the first podium of my career last year”.
Nico Terol got the ninth position with the time of 1’44”603, 1”088 from Gadea. He is followed by Sandro Coretese, Gabor Talmacsi, Scott Redding and by the winner of the Chinese GP Andrea Iannone.
