Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) became the first rider to knock Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) off the top spot for the first time in the 2011 World Championship at this weekend’s Gran Premio bwin de España in an action packed second practice session.

Terol had been the pace setter in FP1, but it was the German rider who finished top of the timesheets in the afternoon practice with a laptime of 1’48:717 which was faster than what he had set in FP1. Terol was unable to improve on his time set in FP1 and recorded a time 0.499 slower, however remained the quickest rider on show in the combined practice times.

The afternoon session was once again run in beautiful conditions, however this more time it was much more blustery which affected the lap times set in the second practice. Very few riders were able to improve on the times they had set in FP1, with the most notable exception, the Intact Racing Team Germany rider.

Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar), one of the Spanish contingent with eleven competing in 125cc, was third fastest, 1.124 behind Cortese’s best lap of the session. Faubel had an engine problem in Qatar whilst racing for a potential rostrum finish and he will be looking to match the pace of his team-mate Terol.

In fourth was Luis Salom (RW Racing GP), just ahead of Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport). Alberto Moncayo (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) was seventh fastest, 1.466 off the quickest time and one spot in front of Sergio Gadea (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton).


The final two places in the top ten went to the rookies. Maverick Viñales (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton) was ninth quickest after recording the best debut in the 125cc class since Scott Redding finished fifth in Qatar in 2008. The Spaniard placed ninth in Losail, while Miguel Oliveira (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica also made history by becoming only the second ever Portuguese rider to score GP points with his result of tenth.

Efrén Vázquez (Ajo Motorsport) suffered a crash into the gravel after losing the front in the early part of FP2. The 24 year old was unable to rejoin the track for the remainder of the session, due to only having one bike which is the current rules in 125cc and the team were unable to make the necessary repairs in time.

Crivillé corner proved to be tough to contend with in this session, claiming many victims in the gravel trap. Zulfahmi Khairuddin (AirAsia-SIC-Ajo) was first, rocketing into the gravel at high speed, in similar fashion to Andrea Dovizioso (Respol Honda) in FP1 earlier today. Then there was a peculiar incident involving a number of riders including Niklas Ajo (TT Motion Events Racing), Sarath Kumar (WTR-Ten10 Racing) and Hiroki Ono (Caretta Technology Forward Team).