‘Aspar' summarises Qatar weekend

Sergio Gadea's brave win in the 125cc race on Sunday evening at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar surprised even his own boss, with Jorge Martinez ‘Aspar' amazed by the young Spanish rider's victory at Losail International.

The Bancaja Aspar racer dislocated his collarbone in a crash during testing on the weekend before the Grand Prix at the desert circuit. Having crashed again on Friday the Valencian rider had even considered going home early and missing the race, but staying in Qatar clearly turned out to be the right decision.

"It was quite a surprising race really as I just didn't think at any point Sergio could win, given the state he was in," admitted ‘Aspar'.

"Before the race I just told him the most important thing was just to finish and get the most points he could, and he really deserved the victory as he was really suffering and fought very hard. I'm very happy for him."

Meanwhile on World Champion Gabor Talmacsi's contrastingly disappointing start to the season, which saw him finish 12th due to a late technical problem in the first race of his title defence campaign, having qualified in second, ‘Aspar' said: "It's a shame because he was fighting at the front with five laps to go."

"There was something wrong with the engine but we still don't know what it was. Importantly he finished the race and got three points which could make a difference at the end of the year."

Although the team's third 125cc participant, rookie Pere Tutusaus, finished outside the points in his first Grand Prix race, he is quickly earning the respect of his manager.

Of the 17 year-old Catalan, ‘Aspar' said: "He is improving a lot. What I like about him is he gets quicker in every practice progressively so we can see he is learning. He was lacking a bit of experience in terms of his race start but then he pushed on and his lap times got better. He ended up 20th and was just a few seconds off the points so I'm happy for him."