at the Losail International Circuit, it was the category’s current two key protagonists who featured at the top of the timesheets again - as Julián Simón and Bradley Smith led the way.
The Bancaja Aspar team look set for more success this year after a strong preseason for Simón and Smith, the two new riders spearheading the Spanish team’s efforts in 2009.
On Tuesday Spaniard Simón outdid his British counterpart Smith despite finishing his session after just 24 laps due to a small crash. Wind and sand at the Losail track meant the riders were not on record pace but Simón’s 2’06.808 time was his best of the two day test and the best of any rider on Tuesday.
“Things went quite a bit better than on the first night even though we are still quite a way off record pace. The track conditions did not improve as much as we had hoped and although we were able to solve some chattering issues there is still more to do. My pace was better than on Monday, it’s just a shame that as I started to go faster I crashed, fortunately without hurting myself. I really want to just get to Friday and get started now!”
Smith, meanwhile, was unable to match his Monday timesheet-topping best effort of 2’06.568, even though he doubled Simón’s lap total, but his best Tuesday time of 2’06.908 left him just behind his team-mate on the night.
The Aspar pair look like they will feature prominently in this weekend’s season-opening Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar which commences on Friday.
Completing the top five in Tuesday’s 125cc test session were three additional riders who will also look run at the front at round one, Andrea Iannone, Sandro Cortese, and Stefan Bradl.
Best 125cc times – Tuesday night Qatar test
1. Julian SIMON 2’06.808
2. Bradley SMITH 2’06.908
3. Andrea IANNONE 2’07.021
4. Sandro CORTESE 2’07.090
5. Stefan BRADL 2’07.104
6. Scott REDDING 2’07.464
7. Marc MARQUEZ 2’07.695
8. Jonas FOLGER 2’07.726
9. Joan OLIVE 2’07.923
10. Pol ESPARGARO 2’07.927
11. Lorenzo ZANETTI 2’08.034
12. Nicolas TEROL 2’08.042
13. Takaaki NAKAGAMI 2’08.108
14. Sergio GADEA 2’08.114
15. Danny WEBB 2’08.283
16. Johann ZARCO 2’08.607
17. Dominique AEGERTER 2’08.660
18. Randy KRUMMENACHER 2’08.679
19. Efren VAZQUEZ 2’08.693
20. Cameron BEAUBIER 2’08.792
21. Esteve RABAT 2’08.836
22. Simone CORSI 2’08.914
23. Lorenzo SAVADORI 2’10.260
24. Luca MARCONI 2’11.503
25. Tomoyoshi KOYAMA 2’11.526
26. Jasper IWEMA 2’11.599
27. Lukas SEMBERA 2’11.636
28. Michael RANSEDER 2’12.410
29. Alexis MASBOU 2’12.764
30. Matthew HOYLE 2’14.758
31. Luca VITALI 2’15.317
RACING TEAM TOTH/ Almeria teszt 2. nap
