Repsol's riders dominate Moto3/125GP CEV in Valencia

The penultimate round of the 2011 CEV has been a difficult test for the young Repsol riders in the 125GP/Moto3 category, although they achieved good results at this event at the Cheste circuit.

Álex Márquez earned a new podium after his crash in the previous race, while championship leader Álex Rins finished in fourth place after making up forty positions. Undoubtedly, the Catalan is in top form and despite that problem at the start he was able to recover in the most spectacular way and ended up close to his teammate Márquez and the podium. Both will contest the title next week in the final round at the Jerez circuit.

In sixth place was Francesco Bagnaia, who added valuable points to keep his third place in the overall standings.

Statements by Álex Rins:

It was one of my worst starts. I released the clutch too early and the bike stalled. I restarted it, but all the riders had already passed me.

So I thought I had to stay calm and race my own race. That’s what I did and, after making up positions, I got onto Álex Márquez’s tail with five laps to go. But while I was following him, I had a scare at corner 12 and he got away from me. After that, I couldn’t catch him again.

Now comes the Jerez race, which is one of my favourite circuits, and I will do the best I can.

Statements by Álex Márquez:

We knew it would be a complicated race because of the weather conditions. This morning we rode the warm-up on a wet track, but in the race it seemed it was going to be different. Already on the grid, we decided to fit dry tyres and in the end we got it right.

In the first laps, I went carefully. A few laps later, I had a tough battle with Francesco Bagnaia in which we both lost time to the race leaders. Finally I finished third and I’m happy, because I cut the points gap to Álex Rins. The next round, in Jerez, I will tackle as a normal race, without pressure.

Statements by Francesco Bagnaia:

I got off to a pretty good start. I moved up to fifth place and, after two corners, I was second behind Miguel Oliveira. Later, Josep Rodríguez joined us and passed me. At that point, Álex Márquez also arrived and we fought for several laps. We kept overtaking each other, and this cost us ground on Miguel Oliveira.

With six laps to go, I started losing positions because of a problem with the bike, and I managed to finish the race in sixth place. The final race will be in Jerez, a circuit I like a lot and where I believe I can keep third place in the overall standings.

Source | Repsol Media Service