If anyone doubts that Marc Marquez doesn’t deserve to win this year’s 125cc championship title, should have seen the Spaniard in today’s red flagged race at Estoril.
While Moto2 and MotoGP were lucky enough to escape the torrential rain that has plagued this Portuguese weekend, the smaller class had to cope with rain, red flags and crashes.
Marquez was eleventh on the grid and sliced through the field in the first lap to take the third spot and challenge Nico Terol in second with Bradley Smith taking the lead, with Luca Marconi and Jasper Iwema going down on first turn.
Terol then took the lead from Smith and a two second advantage, while Marquez passed Smith for second place.
Further down the field, crashes galore with Sandro Cortese, Adrian Martin, Danny Kent, Simone Grotzkyj Giorgi and Louis Rossi all hitting the tarmac, and by lap seven it started to rain and the race was finally red flagged.
The race was restarted as a 9 lap sprint and Marquez crashed on the last turn of sighting lap before the restart and returned to the pits for hurried repairs, that were done in 9-10 minutes flat, but not fast enough to make it out before the pitlane closed, so the Ajo Motorsport rider had to start from the last spot on the grid, which was 17th.
Marquez got off to another fantastic start slicing again through the field to find himself fifth and then third, first dispatching Bradley Smith and then catching Terol on the second to last lap and passing the Bancaja Aspar Team rider on the brakes, which Terol couldn’t respond to and crossing the finish ahead of Terol and Smith, who took the third spot on the podium.
125cc Estoril Race Results – 9 laps01- Marc Marquez – Red Bull Ajo Motorsport – Derbi RSA 125 – 9 laps in 16’27.
87802- Nico Terol – Bancaja Aspar Team – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 0.
15003- Bradley Smith – Bancaja Aspar Team – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 0.
21204- Jonas Folger – Ongetta Team – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 18.
37805- Luis Salom – Stipa Molenaar Racing GP – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 19.
38706- Alberto Moncayo – Andalucia Cajasol – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 22.
50507- Randy Krummenacher – Stipa Molenaar Racing GP – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 26.
69908- Efren Vazquez – Tuenti Racing – Derbi RSA 125 – + 26.
70309- Danny Webb – Andalucia Cajasol – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 31.
50310- Pol Espargaro – Tuenti Racing – Derbi RSA 125 – + 40.
82311- Jakub Kornfeil – Racing Team Germany – Aprilia RSW 125 – + 47.
00612- Simone Grotzkyj Giorgi – Fontana Racing – Aprilia RSA 125 – + 48.
77313- Alessandro Tonucci – Junior GP Racing Team FMI – Aprilia RSW 125 – + 54.
41814- Luigi Morciano – Junior GP Racing Team FMI – Aprilia RSW 125 – + 1’02.
23415- Zulfahmi Khairuddin – AirAsia Sepang Int.
Circuit – Aprilia RSW 125 – + 1’15.
433