Hot temperatures in this afternoon’s single qualifying session for the 125cc Malaysian Grand Prix made life difficult for the engines in the smaller class, with lap times slower than they had been in the cooler morning conditions, but played into the hands of Spanish riders, who took six of the first seven positions on the grid. Marc Márquez took pole position, with Bancaja’s newly-crowned World Champion Julián Simón the only other rider capable of breaking the 2’14 barrier and missing out on snatching pole from his compatriot by just 0.055 seconds.
Simon set the pace in the morning with the fastest lap of the day (2’13.459), which was seven tenths quicker than his nearest rival. In the afternoon he was consistently amongst the frontrunners again, setting fast laps in pairs and making a late improvement to secure second place on the grid. It was a bittersweet afternoon for his team-mate Bradley Smith, who crashed in the final corner with three minutes remaining of the session. However, despite a small fracture in his foot the Brit will line-up on the front row tomorrow as he looks to wrap up second ion the championship from third on the grid. There was no positive flip side to the coin for Sergio Gadea, however, the third Bancaja rider having shown great form in free practice but suffering a mechanical problem in the final moments of qualifying that restricted him to 18th on the grid.
2nd Julián Simón 2.13.811 (14 laps):
“I feel more relaxed now the title is in the ago so I am focusing on learning as much as I can about consistently running at the front. It is all good experience for me for next year and I’d love to win the two races that are left – especially the last one at Valencia, in front of my fans. I’m really happy with our performance today. We’ve been up front all weekend, setting a fast pace and I don’t think there’s any doubt we can be up there tomorrow. We probably just needed to improve a little more in the final corner and missed out on pole because of that but in any case I’m happy with second place and also pleased for Marc, who deserves congratulations for an incredible weekend so far. I guess tomorrow will be a scrap between him, Nico, Smith and myself. Personally I’ll just try and impose my rhythm, escape if I can and otherwise fight it out with whoever is there.”
3rd Bradley Smith 2.14.209 (12 laps):
“The crash was totally unexpected. I was riding hard because I knew I had a chance of setting pole and just before the end of the session the bike threw me out of my seat coming out of the final corner. It was a shame because it meant we couldn’t improve any further although third place on the grid isn’t a bad start. The doctors say I have a small fracture of the fifth metatarsal on my right foot but that won’t stop me from racing tomorrow. I’ll strap it up for warm-up and see how it feels but if it’s too painful I’ll have an injection and I’ll be fine. Our pace is good enough to fight for the win so I hope a little incident like this doesn’t prove to be a handicap.”
18th Sergio Gadea 2.15.529 (13 laps):
“This morning we took two seconds off our best lap time from yesterday, the engine was running fantastically and I was comfortably inside the top ten when qualifying started this afternoon. I put a new tyre on towards the end of the session and I could feel that I was much faster in various points on the track. However, two laps from the end, just as I came through the final corner, my gear-shifter broke. It’s such a shame because I was on a good lap and even if I’d just made it to the end of that one I’d have been much higher on the grid. We’re starting from a long way back so it will be tough but the bike is working well so I’ll do my best to put on a good fightback.”
